Furlough
by Ken
Summary: The war-weary crew of Lafiel's ship are given an extended leave. Lafiel accepts Jinto's invitation to stay with friends in a tropical paradise where he spent his summer vacations in the years before the two of them had met. They both find themselves confronted by ghosts from the past, and are faced with questions about what the future holds for the two of them.
1. Chapter 1

**Furlough**

**A Banner of the Stars story by Ken Wolfe**

Some notes to Banner of the Star fans. In this story I have made as little use of Baronh words as possible. The spelling of names is generally according to that established in the English translation of the novels released by Tokyopop. Where required I also used the Bandai translation of the anime as a source. So the spelling is not according to the True Baronh established by the author. I made these decisions to improve the readability of the story. I have tried to make the continuity consistent with the novels up to the beginning of Banner of the Stars IV, though I also took some inspiration from the anime adaptation. Seikai fans will likely be aware that Morioka-sensei has released a fifth novel, the first in eight years. My first Seikai story, Evolution, made some significant deviation from the canon continuity. This story is in the same continuity as Evolution, though it is not really a sequel and does not depend upon anything that happened in that story. Nevertheless, at this point I would have to call my own Seikai stories an alternate continuity.

Banner of the Stars is copyright Hiroyuki Morioka. English translations of the novels are copyright Tokyopop. The anime adaptation is copyright Bandai. They retain all rights to Banner of the Stars and all characters therein. This story is a work of fan fiction and may not be printed or distributed for profit.

Chapter 1 – Questionable Allies

Lafiel was silent as she watched the viewer that was positioned over the wraparound window of her bridge. The radar chart of plane space showed the slaughter continuing like clockwork. The man largely responsible for said slaughter was seated uncomfortably close to her right side and slightly in front of her in the small jump-seat that had been attached to the side of her command chair. This afforded her the opportunity to observe his reaction without his being aware.

The United Mankind defector watched intently but calmly as one after another the ships of his former allies winked out of existence. He was a staff officer in the United Mankind Space Force, a Colonel they called him, by her understanding more or less the equivalent of a Kilo-commander. Rond Sulley was a large man, surprisingly bulky, with enough body fat to give him a noticeable paunch and double chin. He was also showing his age, with gray streaks in his short brown hair, mostly around the temples. _A Silejian, __from one of the Thousand Great Families, __but not with the genetic modifications that he so desperately wants __to obtain__ for his children. At least that is his story._

When the flurry of Abh Imperial Space Force mines pounding the United Mankind convoy eased off, Sulley did smile and nod just a little, with a sigh that seemed to be relief. He was fluent in Baronh and had shown an ability to easily interpret their chart symbols, so he understood that each time one of the symbols representing a hostile disappeared it meant that hundreds more of the people he betrayed had just died. He would also understand the meaning behind the attack being halted. The remaining ships in the convoy he had led them to had finally surrendered. His relief could have been over the end of this slaughter of his former allies, or over the thought that his story had now been further corroborated. Lafiel had no intention of asking.

"Incoming inter-bubble data packet for you, Commander" communications officer Yateshu said. The short-haired Abh woman looked over to Lafiel. "From the flagship, scrambled, eyes only."

"Thank you, forward to my wristband." The wide red bracelet at her left wrist was linked with fabric to a ring on her middle finger, the standard issue comm unit for all Space Force officers. The holographic globe embedded over her wrist came to life and Lafiel confirmed it was the expected message. "Colonel Sulley, we were able to extract the IFF code from their signals as per your instructions," Lafiel said. She tapped her wristband to forward the message and looked sternly at him. "Over to you for decoding."

"Got it," he said crisply, his eyes fixed on his own comm wristband, a simple flexible gray band that was no doubt the standard issue in his own space force. Former space force. Though he retained the comm band, he was no longer in the uniform he had reportedly been in when he surrendered to the Space Force. He was in a dark suit that she understood to be civilian formal business wear on his world. At least he had the decency to realize he was no longer entitled to wear any uniform. After just a few seconds he turned to her and nodded. "The key is still valid, for another day at least. I've decoded using my private key, over to you."

"Acknowledged," Lafiel said, already seeing the returned message on her own device. She took just a moment to confirm that it contained a decrypted IFF signature. "Yateshu, I've sent the IFF to you, please send to the flagship with a message saying I corroborate this came from Colonel Sulley's comm unit."

"Understood," Yateshu said, already tapping at her console. "Sent."

"Their picket ships are going out of our detection range," Ekuryua reported from her position at the helm. Just a few seconds later the two hostiles at the extreme range on the chart were replaced by symbols indicating they had gone out of effective detection range. They had been exactly where Sulley said they would be, and had not even tried to break through the superior force the Abh had put in place to block their return to the Silejian gate. Their surprise of both the convoy and the picket ships patrolling outside the nearby gate had been complete. Lafiel did not feel compelled to congratulate the defector on his perfect intelligence, and nobody else on the bridge felt the need to speak either. Now it was up to the Admiral to decide whether or not he thought it was the Abh who were really being betrayed.

The answer did not take long to come. The chart on the viewer was replaced by the perpetually smiling face of squadron commander Atosuryua. The appearance of the familiar face with the straight shoulder-length blue hair and almond-shaped eyes brought some comfort to Lafilel, making her feel a little less alone with this awkward circumstance. "We are a go for phase two," she said brightly. "Commander Abriel, Admiral Trife sends his regards to you and the crew of the Frikov. We will follow your lead to the gate. I join him in wishing you the best of luck."

"Acknowledged," Lafiel said. The viewer reverted to the plane space chart. "Helm, best speed to the gate."

"On our way," Ekuryua said in her usual deadpan. "Estimate fifty minutes to transition."

Lafiel looked fondly at her first officer, now a full-time occupant of the helm position. Desperate for experienced pilots, the fleet had transferred the Frikov's veteran helmsman to a new squadron, much to Lafiel's annoyance. Lafiel had intended to have her First Officer do dual duty at the helm only until she could groom one of the recruits into a pilot Lafiel could trust. It was a move that had made her crew more than a little nervous. The petite, soft-spoken, baby-faced officer had a reputation for piloting with the same reckless abandon as a particularly rambunctious kitten finishing off her first mouse. But her unorthodox piloting had saved them enough times that even the Admiral's staff officers were taking notice. Having the first officers of the little frigates also act as helmsman was now the standard practice, especially those officers who had served long with their commanders. Lafiel certainly felt better knowing the ship was in the hands of somebody who knew what she wanted almost before she gave the order... even if her execution was not always quite what Lafiel had in mind. But for the thousandth time Lafiel wished she was still commanding a ship small enough that the captain could be her own helmsman.

"We have a bit of time, Commander," Jinto said from his systems console. "Should I serve some tea?"

"Yes, please," Lafiel said. Her bridge crew would normally be a lot more relaxed now that they knew there would be little to do for a while. But the presence of the stranger whom Lafiel had only met briefly a few days ago and had introduced to the bridge crew mere hours ago hung like a shroud over them. Jinto was doing his best to restore the normal mood, politely asking Sulley what he would like. The answer surprised them. Soon both her and Lafiel were sipping tea with a slice of lemon. "I thought I was the only one in the galaxy who liked my tea this way," Sulley said pleasantly.

"Funny, I thought Lafiel was the only one," Jinto quipped. He remained standing in front of them, holding his own teacup, as always knowing without asking when Lafiel wished for his presence.

"Never could get lemon slices on a navy ship," Sulley said. "I swear lemon must be one of the ten thousand controlled substances in the United Mankind."

Lafiel wanted so much to hate this man. She well understood that in less than an hour all their lives would be in his hands. It was her duty to work effectively with him. But to do that, she was within her rights to try and get her measure of the man. At this point she judged that he had enough sense to understand that. "I doubt you left the United Mankind for the sake of lemon tea," Lafiel said evenly.

Sulley smiled in a way that suggested he understood Lafiel's intentions. "Your superiors clearly put a great deal of trust in you, I'm sure they briefed you on my situation."

"They have." Rond Sulley was the grandson of a successful businessman who had married into one of the Thousand Great Families on the independent world of Silejia. The marriage was supposed to have granted their children the right to the genetic enhancements that brought extended life and unparalleled prestige to members of the Great Families. But Silejia had soon been annexed by the United Mankind, whose ban on human genetic manipulation was immediately put into effect. "From your point of view, their annexing your home world came at the worst possible time, you certainly have every reason to hate them."

"Yet I have been serving the United Mankind Space Force all my life," Sulley said, completing the thought for her.

"I am moved to wonder when you decided they were no longer worth serving," Lafiel said rhetorically.

"Eight years ago my wife and I had decided we were nearly ready to start having children," Sulley said, a change of subject that Lafiel responded to with just a querying raise of an eyebrow. "Then the war started. That was when I made up my mind. We would not have children until Silejia became part of the Abh Empire."

"I suppose I should be gratified by your faith in the Empire's victory," Lafiel said with just enough irony to raise a challenge.

"It has been more a lack of faith in your enemies."

Lafiel noted he did not presume to refer to his former masters as _our _enemies. "Faith in their competence or in their honor?"

Sulley smiled sadly. "It would take more time than we have right now to describe all the basic contradictions that I have seen running through the fabric of the United Mankind. But in the end that would just be rationalization. I want my people to be free, but I want it for personal reasons."

Lafiel could sense by peripheral vision Jinto's change in body language, his concern over how that would hit home for her. It seemed Sulley even looked a bit surprised, sensing that he had touched a nerve. _I too have gambled the fate of many for personal reasons._ Only Jinto and she knew just how true that was. "When this is done, how many of your people do you think will be happy to hear what you have done?"

"The Thousand Great Families will be very happy. The rest will mostly be indifferent."

"I can see why they might be something less than indifferent," Lafiel said, trying not to get her back up after Sulley's unintended barb. "They will be no more free than they are now, the only difference is the reasons they cannot have what you are trying to buy for your descendants."

Sulley shrugged. "My grandfather started from nothing and built up a business that got noticed by one of the Families. He felt that he had earned the legacy his children would enjoy. But he expected them to earn it too, and so did my father. The Families offer access to the fruits of their technology for those whom they think deserve it, just as I imagine you do." His eyes shifted momentarily to Lafiel's pointed ear as if to ask _you don't let just anyone have those, do you?_

"Genetic enhancement is not just a right for Abh nobility, it's the law," Jinto said with a smile that suggested he thought the point was more clever than it really was.

"It's not the law on Silejia, but among the Families it might as well be," Sulley said. "It is effectively universal. My grandfather's descendants are among the very few exceptions, and only because of unfortunate timing."

"Did you tell your wife why you wanted to delay having children?" Lafiel asked.

"I told her I think the Abh will win the war. She knows nothing of my specific plans, in fact I am returning home much earlier than she would have expected." He smiled. "And under rather different circumstances than expected."

Lafiel did not know the circumstances of Sulley's defection, that was on a need to know basis. At the mission briefing she had been told just enough to make her worry that her ship and crew were being entrusted to the word of a traitor. She was now marginally more confident than she had been.

"After this operation your actions will be exposed," Jinto pointed out. "Will you need us to help ensure her safety?"

That was a remarkably practical question, Lafiel thought. Then again, Jinto certainly had enough bitter experience being resented as an Abh Empire collaborator. "You understand we have no intention of occupying the planet."

"I understand," Sulley said. He directed his answer to Jinto. "Thank you for your concern, Excellency. Our compound is very well protected. All the security forces are on a high state of alert, what with the proximity of your advance into Union territory."

Silejia was actually a fair distance from the axis of the Abh advance. The Union probably did not consider it to be under immediate threat, which was another reason they had so far achieved complete surprise. Things had happened rather quickly so Lafiel had not been briefed on the strategic context. She only knew the tactical position of enemy forces defending the system. Based on what Sulley had told them, the Union obviously considered this system to be vital. Which was why if the next phase of his plan failed, or if they were walking into a trap, they were all in deep trouble. "Our plan is dependent to some degree on the Union command behaving in a reasonable fashion," Lafiel said.

Sulley smiled. "I've had plenty of chances to see just how unreasonable they can be. But the real fanatics are mostly in the People's Guards units. In this system it's all regular forces. That is fortunate for us, it means fewer officers from the old guard with suicidal tendencies."

"Still, sometimes new converts make the worst fanatics," Jinto pointed out.

"So you have been on the receiving end of the fanatic's rage?" Sulley asked.

"You are not the first Silejian whom Jinto and I have met," Lafiel said. "At the start of the war we were caught in the Union occupation of Clasbul. A certain Lieutenant Kyte hunted us down with an intransigence that went far beyond duty and bordered on insanity."

"He was modified?" Sulley asked.

"Yes, something we found out later."

"Some members of the Thousand Families did go a bit loopy after we became part of the Union. You are quite right about one thing," Sulley said, directing his comment to Jinto. "The ones who did convert to the Union faith in genetic purity became worse fanatics than their masters. I saw instances of that myself. To me it was just so obvious that their hatred of the Abh was nothing but petty envy."

"You feel none yourself?" Lafiel asked.

"I couldn't deny it. The odd thing is the members of my family who received enhancements before the occupation feel envy towards me. I have the privileges of being on one of the Great Families but face none of the prejudices they do in the Union. It is what allowed me to achieve my position in the forces."

"When our mission is done, you will be a hero to them," Jinto said.

"One man's traitor is another's hero, I suppose," Sulley said with a lopsided grin.

"You seem rather calm for somebody about to stake his life on whether he will be regarded as a hero or a traitor," Lafiel said evenly.

Sulley chuckled. "Forgive me, I don't mean to trivialize what you suggested. I just find it odd being described as calm on a warship bridge where we are sipping tea just minutes from entering battle. In my days as an ensign, even a suggestion that we serve tea on the bridge would likely have earned me a trip to the brig. Do you always treat war as a vacation?"

"We do no such thing," Lafiel said sternly. "At the moment the only occupation of my crew is getting to the Silejian gate at best speed, something the navigation computer is quite capable of doing on its own. We have already done all the preparation we can, and other ships in our fleet are ensuring our security. When the time comes, I assure you we will be entirely focused on the mission."

Sulley smiled. "I don't doubt that at all, commander. Allow me to be a little envious, not of your genes, but of your grace under pressure."

"Being agitated will not increase our chance of victory."

"Union propaganda is forever portraying you as soulless machines. That never got much traction on Silesia, where the genetic mods we do are little different from yours. But right up to the day when I met the Abh for the first time, I have to confess a small part of me was afraid they might be right and I might be making the biggest mistake of my life."

"I am happy we have laid your fears to rest," Lafiel said without implying it was a question. If Sulley wanted to just cut his losses, his delivery of this Union convoy on a silver platter was more than enough to secure him a permanent comfortable position as a protected ward of the Empire. The fact that he was willing to follow through with the rest of the mission gave Lafiel just a bit more confidence in him.

Sulley smiled. "And I am happy I have laid to rest at least some of your concerns."

Lafiel was happy he had no pretensions of being trusted. The only thing Lafiel trusted just a bit more now was that Sulley had more incentive to work with them than to betray them. His being here on her ship was the main part of that incentive. Or so she hoped.

Remarkably, Sulley produced a hologram of his wife for them to view. Predictably this made Jinto feel compelled to produce a picture of his younger self with his foster parents on his own wristband holo. From what Lafiel could see this exchange of family pictures was an almost universal ritual among landers wherever they were from, one that she still found baffling. She remained silent during this exchange, always unsure what was expected of her. Why would a relative stranger care whether or not she thought his wife was pretty? Jinto had once described it as a kind of "bonding", so perhaps it was not without value.

"Five minutes to transition," Ekuryua announced. Jinto collected teacups and resumed his station. When Ekuryua announced the two minute mark, Lafiel set her comm to ship-wide. "This is the commander. We are proceeding with the transition through the Silejia gate. Our mission is a simple one, but as you are aware there are a number of unknowns and so the situation could change very rapidly. I am depending on each and every one of you to carry out your duties without fail. That is all." She tapped her wristband to end the broadcast. "You are ready, Colonel?"

"All ready," he said, his eyes on the display showing the rapidly approaching gate. He was alert but calm, a good sign. The last thing she needed was for him to panic. She noted the other ships approaching the gate behind her at their assigned intervals. This was where timing was going to be everything.

At the thirty second mark, Yateshu announced they were transmitting the provided IFF. Lafiel resisted the temptation to monitor Sulley's expression. If she had second thoughts about his intentions, this was hardly the time.

The Frikov made the transition through the gate. As always, the shift from being an elementary particle in two-dimension space to being an object in three-dimensional space was marked only by the shift in the contents of the overhead display. The plane space chart was replaced by a radar map of local space. Everything was where Sulley said it would be. There were two cruisers on picket duty nearby. The orbital fortress was just a thousand kilometers away. Fifty thousand kilometers further was the home planet. "Colonel, ready for your transmission," Yateshu said.

Sulley touched his wristband and brought it up close to his face. He spoke in the United Mankind battle language, which Lafiel's tiara translated for her. "This is the cruiser Owenson calling Union port authority. We have a medical emergency, three casualties. Request permission for immediate docking and ER standby, please acknowledge."

Ekuryua had already activated maximum thrusters and set them on a course for the fortress. By random chance they had come out on the opposite side of the gate from the fort, so that had required a quick change in direction. That would be raising eyebrows on the picket ships.

The delay in response was putting Lafiel on edge. When it did come, her translator seemed to be even more sluggish than usual, even though she knew that was just her impression. "This is Union control, permission granted, proceed to dock three. Please state the nature of the emergency."

"Third degree chemical burns from a coolant leak," Sulley said. "The leak has been largely contained, there is no immediate threat to the ship."

"Acknowledged," came the reply. Lafiel could not help but imagine the communications now passing between the various stations within the fortress and the patrol ships. They would be surprised by the early arrival of a ship from the expected convoy and startled by the declaration of an emergency that was rare if not unheard of. Surprise, concern, uncertainty, puzzlement, a sudden break of routine. She tried to think of how she would react. Would she be skeptical? Would she doubt the IFF signal and ask for a high-gain radar ping or optical scan of the approaching ship?

So far, nothing was shooting at them. That was a good sign.

Lafiel noted that Jinto had started the slow bleeding of coolant just before going through the gate, exactly as planned. That had been his idea. Lafiel thought it was a bit much, but everyone seemed to agree it added another distraction to prevent their being discovered... or rather to delay their inevitable discovery. She could not help twitching just a bit when the bridge speakers started spewing the United Mankind battle language again. "This is station commander Grevin to the Owenson, requesting to speak with the commander."

Lafiel watched Sulley closely. They had arranged a signal for him to give if he thought the deception had been discovered. He did not give it. "This is Colonel Sulley," he answered calmly. "The commander is in the engine room coordinating damage control at the moment. I can raise him if you would like, but we just finished getting a fire under control and the ship is still under yellow alert."

There was enough of a delay to make Lafiel nervous. "Understood, Colonel. You have the bridge?"

"Yes sir, the XO is also involved in damage control. The last report I got suggests we'll have the leak sealed before we reach the dock."

Lafiel got the impression that was not really the base commander's concern, but it was another good bit of distraction on Sulley's part. "What is the status of your convoy?" the commander asked.

"About five minutes behind us," Sulley said. That would put them about two hours behind schedule, for a long distance run like this not enough to raise suspicion, at least not much.

There was silence for a few anxious moments. Then the same voice came over the speakers again. "Owenson, please send intel comm package, acknowledge."

That was the request they had been dreading. When the first ship of a convoy arrived through a gate, standard procedure was for it to transmit a data package with any intelligence updates, general alerts and inter-system messages from their system of origin. Needless to say, the Frikov had no such data packet to send. They had been depending on their contrived emergency as an excuse for not having sent it immediately.

After an interval that was just long enough to suggest things were still chaotic on the bridge Sulley said "Please stand by." There was nothing more they could do as the distance to the fortress shrank and the enemy's suspicions grew.

An audio alarm and a flashing light next to one of the picket ships told them that the cruiser had just sent a radar ping their way. Sulley looked at Lafiel and gave a slight shake of the head. _They're not buying it._

"Thirty seconds to weapons range," Ekuryua said. Lafiel had been watching the other countdown displayed on the monitor, it now ran to zero. Mere seconds later, new radar blips appeared coming out of the gate. Lafiel fumed at the bad timing. The Abh ships coming through the gate were also transmitting the enemy's IFF, but now that their suspicions had been raised that was probably not working in their favor any more. Lafiel had been hoping to be closer in by the time this happened. She quickly made her decision. "Gunomuboshu, target the bridge and primary radar dish at extreme range."

"Yes, commander," the young weapons master replied. He loaded nukes into both railguns. "Targets acquired. Firing." There was a jolt as the great electromagnetic guns catapulted the warheads to the two designated points on the curved surface of the rapidly approaching fortress. Now the cat was well and truly... how did Jinto like to put it? The cat was out of the bag.

Seconds dragged like minutes. The two warheads detonated close enough to their targets they were certain to have the intended affect. With no immediate threat expected, the Union fortress would conduct its operations from an observation bridge close to the sphere's surface. That vulnerable bridge and their primary radar array had just been lost. It would take a certain amount of time to transfer operations to their battle bridge and their distributed radar arrays. Eight years of war had honed the Union forces no less than their own, Lafiel did not expect this to buy them much time.

It didn't. The first sign was the winking out of the mutually friendly IFF signature that had been marking the base and its picket ships. Their IFF was now officially not trusted. _Enemies once again._ "Incoming friendlies," Ekuryua said, announcing what Lafiel had already noted. The battleships that had come through the gate had launched their own missile barrage the moment they saw the Frikov fire. The first salvo would be here in minutes. The base would be launching mines by then. Lafiel had seconds to make her most critical decision. _Retreat or move in close? We're farther out than I had hoped, it's borderline._ "Helm, take us in. Weapons, target nearest sortie ports."

Two more warheads streaked out and struck the fortress. This time they answered back, antiproton cannons firing at extreme range. One got a solid hit on the frigate's electromagnetic shields, shaking the little ship badly. "Shields holding, no damage," Jinto said just a little too loudly.

The gray expanse of the artificial satellite expanded to fill half the sky. Ekuryua had angled them to the starboard size of the great sphere, heading for the next port along its axis. Lafiel knew full well that at this point the closer they got and the faster they were going the better they could avoid enemy fire. That had all sounded very reasonable in a planning session, but the reality looked more insane every second.

"Firing," Gunomuboshu said. The nukes detonated barely a second after being launched. "Next one-" he was cut off as another anti-proton beam slammed into their shield. That one had definitely got through. "Next one will be too close for nukes."

"Switch to main battery. Helm, as close as you can."

"Two port laser batteries down, no casualties," Jinto said.

Ekuryua had their nose pointed straight down towards the surface of the fort rushing past them at hellish speed, the full might of the twin thrusters just barely keeping their path a curve that skimmed over the arc of its surface.

"Firing," the gunner said again. "Hit." That was something like a miracle, at this speed Lafiel had fully been expecting a miss. They had just immobilized or damaged all but one of the entrances to the fort's interior harbor, any sortie they launched would be delayed by minutes at least.

"Mines ahead," Ekuryua said.

"Slow us down," Lafiel said instantly. They had nearly come all the way around the base now and were heading back towards the Gate where the Abh fleet was emerging. That was where the enemy would be directing their mines, but the automated killers would be more than happy to choose the Frikov as a target if it got much closer to the swarm. Ekuryua skimmed the surface of the fort, losing speed as they went. "They've blown the last port open."

"_Blown_ it?" Sure enough, a camera view showed the huge door they had been hoping to seal sailing gently away from the fort, trailing gas from the massive explosive bolts that had catapulted it. Their sortie would no doubt follow in seconds, a force one frigate had no hope of either outrunning or outfighting. "Ekuryua, take us in."

"Roger." Lafiel was proud of the fact that Sulley was the only one who gave her a shocked look. Lafiel had not shared with him the plan B she had kept as an option. She did not exactly have time to explain to him why taking the ship into the enemy's harbor was the least unsafe course. She could explain that streaking across the surface of a fort bristling with gun batteries was a gamble they would inevitably lose, or that the sky would soon be swarming with mines, or that those mines would soon be joined by enemy cruisers and assault ships unless they did something about it fast.

With the relative speed dropping to something sane, the Frikov's laser batteries struck at the enemy guns on the surface, trying to immobilize them before they could get a firing solution. Lafiel noted that Ekuryua kept the starboard batteries facing the fort, where the ship still had a full array of guns. Their success was partial. Two more near hits badly shook the shields. The latent heat absorbed into the armor plating was reaching critical. Just on time for a cruiser to sail through the open port. "Main battery!" Lafiel called. It was a shot most pilots only dreamed of, hitting a cruiser amidships at point-blank range. Their bridge crew were probably too busy with their hasty debarkation to consider they could come under fire before even fully emerging from the portal. Without being asked Ekuryua hit them with a second blast at even closer range. The sky filled with flying debris from the great gaping hole she had left in the larger ship. Seemingly satisfied with her work, Ekuryua swung them around wildly and plunged straight into the space that had been vacated by the stricken cruiser mere seconds ago. _Too fast!_ But they had no choice, another hit from the fort's surface batteries would likely do them in. Only one way to lose speed fast enough. "Railguns, fire blind!"

"Firing!" Lafiels' consciousness registered the jolt from the railguns sending out two more nukes just a moment before it could register what it was they were shooting into. The harbor was exactly the shape and size that Sulley's schematics had indicated, a vast open space lined with docking ports of all sizes. It was somewhat more crowded than he had led them to expect, most every port cradling a transport or warship. Most of the latter were in various stages of debarking.

The nearest ones were a pair of escort ships on a collision course.

Ekuryua did not need to be told to evade them, she was doing so while bringing the ship about as fast as she could. One of the Frikov's nukes bounced harmlessly off one of the escorts, it having been too close for the warhead's proximity safety to have disengaged. By the time Ekuryua had the ship turned around and braked them within meters of a docked transport, their second nuke had detonated against the far bulkhead, showering the Frikov and all the nearby ships with more debris and gas.

"Last two!" Gunomuboshu said, Informing one and all that their last two warheads were ready to fire. "Negative, port gun down."

One left, then. Prioritize damaging the fort, pick a spot furthest towards the core. "Traverse left thirty, up forty and fire." Between Ekuryua's turing the ship and Gunomoboshu traversing the electromagnetic gun as far as it would go, they had it lined up in about three seconds. That was enough for the Frikov to take two strikes from laser batteries of nearby ships. Some of the ship captains had quickly overcome the disbelief over an enemy ship making it into the fort's interior and had given the orders to disregard every safety protocol and open fire inside the confines of their own harbor.

"Firing!"

"Behind the heavy cruiser!" Lafiel shouted. Ekuryua was already turning the ship towards the enemy ship Lafiel had in mind. It was already uncomfortably close... never mind, _all_ of these ships were uncomfortably close, the only thing keeping the Frikov relatively unmolested was the enemy's confusion and their reluctance to endanger each other with friendly fire. The harbor was lit up by the flash of another thermonuclear explosion. It had detonated against the furthest bulkhead as planned. It was astonishing Gunomoboshu had got a clear shot with all the intervening ships in disarray. Her ship had done what damage to the fort that it could, time to just stay alive. Ekuryua brought them impossibly close to the great curved hull of the cruiser making its way to the port entrance. It shielded the Frikov from the worst of the debris field but Ekuryua could do only so much to make her ship a difficult target for the enemy's laser batteries. They were jolted by a really bad hit and the background noise of the ship's thrusters changed subtly. Lafiel's sinking feeling was confirmed when Jinto announced "Starboard thruster down."

"Get us out of here." She knew it was an impossible order, they had just lost most of their maneuverability and were now an easy target.

"He means to ram us!" Sulley cried, startling Lafiel. She had taken note of the little escort ship coming in quickly, but only now realized the defector was right. "Evasive!" she called by way of agreeing with his assessment. _Brave... and maybe even the correct move, if we weren't already helpless_. She already knew there was no hope of avoiding collision. She stabbed the general intercom button. "Brace for impact!" Ekuryua was trying to orient the ship to make it a glancing blow off their flank. It would not be enough. A big meaty arm came across her chest. "Wha-"

The impact was far worse than she had expected. Even with the Colonel's quick intervention she was all but thrown out of her command chair. The sound was deafening, and it seemed to go on forever, a cacophony of screaming metal that reverberated through the ship, more felt than heard.

The silence, when it came, was somehow more stunning than the impact had been. Absently she noticed that Sulley removed his arm from across her body, and she glanced at him. "Your pardon," he said rather sheepishly. His manner was apologetic, as if he had committed an act of gross discourtesy. It certainly would have been, if it were not that he had kept her from flying across the bridge. "My thanks," she muttered. Instantly her zone of consciousness expanded to take in her ship's condition. The overhead display had automatically reverted to a ship status schematic. Most areas were in the yellow, showing major structural damage. Surprisingly little was in the flashing red of lost airlock. But there was enough. There would be casualties. Both thrusters were now down, so were the shields and the main battery. Lafiel forced herself to focus on what she needed to do right now. The Frikov was in a tight spin, though not as tight as the enemy escort ship spinning away in a cloud of debris and venting gasses. They were heading straight for another collision, this time with the great cruiser Ekuryua had been running circles around. Without being asked she had already released the safeties on the maneuvering thrusters (the ones that were left) and was running them to destruction. As the curving hull of the enemy ship loomed closer, Lafiel was about to give another warning of impact, but it was too late so she just braced herself. By comparison with the last impact this one was more of a love tap. Ekuryua had timed their spin so that they more or less rolled off the great curving hull of the enemy ship.

Remarkably, nobody was shooting at them. It must have been perfectly obvious that they were helpless and no threat to anyone.

"Commander, we can block the port."

Ekuryua's delicate voice had a note of urgent query that only Lafiel would pick up. Instantly she saw the aftermath of this new collision. Both the Frikov and the cruiser it was trailing were headed for an opening that was just big enough for the enemy's largest class of warship. Lafiel set her jaw. "Do it."

This time Lafiel did send another warning to brace for impact. _Fewer people alive to hear me this time... no, focus on what is in front. _This time it was less an impact and more an extended, shuddering, grinding intersection of metal as two ships lodged themselves in an opening not quite wide enough for the both of them. When it came to an end, nobody spoke. Perhaps it was sheer disbelief at what they had just done. Lafiel found herself speechless more from the sheer indignity of their position. For a commander to do such a thing to her ship seemed obscene. Oddly, she found her feelings going out to the commander of the enemy cruiser that shared their ignoble state.

"Stand down from combat operations," Lafiel said, making official what was already obvious. They were in no position to defend themselves, much less threaten the enemy any further. "All crew are released to rescue operations. Let's get everyone accounted for."

"I'm getting no response from the starboard weapons station," Jinto said. "The station is intact but they are cut off by red sections."

Fire to one side and vacuum to the other, by the looks of it. Lafiel needed to send a senior officer there to coordinate rescue and damage control, that would be the worst section.

Ekuryua stood briskly from her helm station. "Please let me go."

There was a hint of desperation in her manner that made Lafiel hesitate for just a second. Lafiel recalled Adrian was assigned that station, he fairly worshiped the ground Ekuryua walked upon... did she feel she had let him down by bringing the ship into this state? The last thing she needed now was heroics borne from desperate guilt. But there was no time to analyze and nobody Lafiel would trust more with the task. She nodded. "Be careful."

Gunomoboshu also asked to go, but Lafiel sent him to engineering to assist in stabilizing the ship, something better suited to his cautious temperament. That left her with a skeleton staff on her bridge, but there was little to do besides monitor and prioritize the rescue and repair operations.

"Commander, I think we're being hailed," Yateshu said hesitantly.

"You _think?_"

"The hail translates as being for Owenson's Evil Twin."

"That would be us," Sulley said. "It's a mistranslation, probably they mean the cruiser Owenson's imposter."

That would certainly describe the Frikov in her current mission. "Put it through."

"The video as well?"

Lafiel raised an eyebrow. Video transmissions to the enemy in a combat zone were regarded as a security breach, but if that was what they wanted Lafiel would reciprocate. "Yes."

The overhead screen resolved into a picture of an elderly man in a United Mankind uniform. She recognized the insignia of a rear admiral. She was quite certain she recognized the voice as the one she had heard in their first communication with the fort. The translation of his words confirmed that. "I am base commander Grevin."

"Hecto-commander Abriel of the Frikov."

"Commander, we would like to coordinate efforts to extricate your ship and our cruiser from the port entrance."

"We have no intention of resisting your efforts, Admiral," Lafiel said by way of indicating she would not be assisting them either.

This took Grevin aback for a moment. Then a look of understanding passed across his face. "I see, it will be a few minutes until you have line of sight communications with your fleet."

"If you say so."

"When they are able, they will confirm that they have ceased their bombardment and that hostilities have come to a close."

"Then I shall await their confirmation."

"Commander, if I may," Sulley said in a hushed tone that begged leave to speak.

Lafiel considered for half a second, then killed the mike that would have carried their conversation to the enemy bridge. "Speak quickly."

Sulley had a rather pained, almost embarrassed expression on his face that mirrored what she had just seen on Grevin's face. "I believe he is trying to tell you that the base has surrendered to the Empire."

"Does he expect me to take his word for that?"

"No," Sulley said. He continued with a sad smile. "I think he just wants to ensure that you won't try anything else... well, eccentric."

Lafiel was very unhappy about being painted with an adjective usually reserved as a euphemism for the spectacular insanity of the Bebaus clan. But she had to concede the point. "Understood." She resumed transmission. "Admiral Grevin, you have my word that if left unprovoked we will initiate no hostilities until we are able to resume communications with our superiors."

The relief on the Admiral's face was palpable, something Lafiel frankly found baffling. They were one disabled frigate hopelessly pinned down, had he been expecting her to detonate her engine as a suicide attack? Again, thinking of their recent actions Lafiel had to concede the appearance of... very well, of eccentric action.

"We will move mobile cranes into position. They will remain on standby. Please inform us when you are ready for their assistance. We will make no attempt to relieve you of your excess baggage. Grevin out."

"Acknowledged." Lafiel signaled for Yateshu to sever the link.

"Commander, the XO has reported in," Jinto said. Lafiel had been dreading this report, and the look in Jinto's eyes confirmed her fears. "Two dead, three critical but stable. The XO is now on a general inspection of the ship."

"Who is in charge at the impact site?"

Jinto answered her real question. "Vanguard Pilot Adrian is incapacitated, his ensign is reporting."

"Thank you." Something gnawed at the back of Lafiel's mind while the mixed news played across her mind as relief against anguish. "Colonel, I am not certain I understood the Admiral's reference to excess baggage."

Sulley grinned. "That would be me, Commander."

"I see. Rest assured, you remain under my protection."

"Right now, I think being under your protection makes me the safest man in the Galaxy."

Some landers had a sense of humor that escaped Lafiel, so she was uncertain whether she was being teased. She was willing to take his statement at face value. Jinto continued to report on the state of ship and crew as Lafiel kept an eye on the activity around them. A stream of gas, debris, bodies and pieces of bodies floated out into space through the gaps between her ship and the bulkheads it was wedged between. They clearly were having trouble sealing off the leaks left by her attack. She had damaged the base even more than she imagined, no doubt contributing to their quick surrender. As promised, they were moving equipment into place but making no other move.

"We are being hailed by the squadron commander," Yateshu said, sounding very relieved.

"On screen."

Atosoryua's smiling face once again graced the viewer. "Commander Abriel, seeing you again makes me more happy than I can say."

Lafiel allowed herself a smile in return. "The feeling is mutual, Squadron Commander."

"Admiral Trife has accepted the surrender of all United Mankind forces in the Silejian system."

"So they have informed me."

"I am surprised they did not surrender to you first."

"I regret I was unable to make them see reason."

Atosoryua's slanted eyes shifted minutely, indicating she was examining a different display. "We have located your ship..." she paused. "I can see why you had them intimidated."

"I am mortified at having mistreated one of our ships in such a way."

Atosoryua's smile was all the benediction Lafiel needed. "Your crew?" she asked gently.

"Two dead."

"I am sorry. You have done well, better than we dared hope. Their base commander has requested cooperation in clearing you from their port, the harbor is no longer safe for their ships. Shall I conference him in?"

"Please do, Squadron Commander," Lafiel said with relief. She tried to convince herself it was concern for her ship's safety and not pride that motivated her. Nevertheless, she was very anxious to get the Frikov out of this undignified position as quickly as she could.

# # # #

Flyer Yateshu excused herself from the bridge, leaving Jinto alone with Lafiel. After two days of cruising back and forth through the thick pea soup of particles in Plane Space skimming the galactic core, Jinto still could not say he was weary of the routine. It certainly beat getting into boxing matches with enemy ships, though he doubted Lafiel would appreciate the joke. Her eyes were glued to the radar screen, for days now empty of all save the two other ships in the ad-hoc group that Lafiel currently commanded. Her pensive look told him exactly what she was thinking. "Did you ever get the feeling you were being watched?" he asked.

She nodded. "Since we got here I have not been able to shake that feeling."

Jinto had not anticipated quite so frank an answer, he had been expecting to have to coax it out of her. In truth they were not expecting to see the enemy. True, this was the tip of the thrust the Empire had made into Plane Space to separate the United Mankind from the Sovereign Union of Planets. But there were much larger forces on each of their flanks, guarding against either enemy attempting to reestablish the link between them. Lafiel's force was here to guard against incursions from deeper in the Galactic Core. The fact that the group consisted of the Frikov and two other hastily repaired, limping frigates showed just how unlikely command regarded attack from a region where ships would be flying blind.

But Jinto knew it was not thoughts of that enemy which kept Lafiel's eyes glued to the screen. "If the Collective knew that you are their new neighbor, perhaps they would make a courtesy call."

"I would just as soon they did not, and I am not certain a group mind would understand the concept of courtesy."

"You described them as being polite to a fault, at least to you."

Two years ago Lafiel had been a prisoner in the Vensath system where millions of slave soldiers downloaded into robot bodies using banned technology had rebelled against the Hania Federation. They were called Mimics, and they had launched an undeclared war on the Empire. With Lafiel's help, the Vensath system had been overrun by sets of of Mimics who had formed group minds called Collectives. When their coup was done, all the Mimics became part of one gestalt mind, a single vast Collective. They had promptly disengaged from battle and retreated into the Galactic Core, never to be seen again.

The official line was that the Imperial Fleet had chased them into the Core, where they would inevitably get lost, run out of fuel and wink out of existence. But Lafiel, Jinto and others who had fought the Mimics knew better, knew what had been declared a state secret. The Collective had capabilities they could barely imagine. Navigating the particle soup of the Galactic Core was probably child's play to them. They had entered the Core with a fleet that could challenge the Empire. With the uncanny productivity they had demonstrated, by now they could have a fleet many, many times more powerful, or other weapons even more unimaginable.

Lafiel shook her head. "I think their politeness was borne of indifference, not of regard for us."

They had this discussion any number of times over the past two years. Ultimately Jinto had to concede her expertise, being the only person who had lived among the Collective, if briefly. "Regardless, I will always be grateful to them for letting you come back to us."

That brought the smile he had been hoping for. "Would you like me to send out a message of thanks and see if anybody responds?"

"That would be breaking our radio silence."

"A very convenient answer."

"If pressed, I would say that I prefer to let sleeping cats lie."

"So be it then." Over the past two years, the haunted look that would creep into Lafiel's eyes at mention of the Collective had slowly faded. Jinto could still sense that she bitterly regretted helping the Collective take over the Vensath system and thereby preventing the Empire from ridding them of the Mimics once and for all. But as he had often argued, there was no such thing as once and for all. Somebody, somewhere could turn people into robot Mimics again, and they could get out of control again. Jinto often suspected that in their heart of hearts the Abh, or at any rate the ones born with the blue hair and the expectation of a vigorous life spanning two centuries or more, all shared a secret dream. They dreamed that one day all of Creation would sit under their watchful eye, an eternal land of plenty that they would keep peaceful and ordered until the last stars faded. He could not help think that in her heart Lafiel was afraid she had robbed the universe of that glorious destiny.

Early on, Jinto had learned that the universe had a way of upsetting every little enclave of comfort and order that people tried to cocoon themselves with. The first lesson had come when a ten year old boy looked into the sky to see the Abh fleet that broke his home world's century of splendid isolation. But the Empire, with all its power and majesty, was no less subject to the Fates. Seven years later it had been thrown into a war with the rest of humanity, a war that still raged on.

"I'm just happy that our orders are to run at the first sign of trouble," he quipped.

"In this case I have to agree." It was a miracle the Frikov was still space-worthy. The knuckle draggers had been slaving as never before, but they had been astonished to find no damage at all to the core engine systems. The taking of Silesia had been a great success, but it left the fleet spread even more thinly, and every able ship was like gold. It was a stretch to call the Frikov able, with only one working railgun, half her laser batteries missing and armor plating that was mostly patchwork that leaked like a sieve. Her two sister ships were in somewhat better shape, but they could all be described as walking wounded.

"We still haven't removed that jump-seat," Jinto said, pointing to the small chair that was now folded up against the side of her command chair.

"I am just happy it is not in use any more."

"You and Colonel Sulley seemed to make a good team."

Lafiel's face darkened. "I cannot deny his contribution to our mission," she said in an icy voice.

Jinto smiled. "He was also polite to a fault."

"And equally indifferent to his old and new masters."

"At least his wife was happy. Before we left Silesia she sent a letter of thanks to you and the ship's crew. It had a picture of them, would you like to see it?"

"Not particularly. But it was a nice gesture, I wish her many happy children. Hopefully she will have more influence on them than he does."

"That's harsh."

"I shudder to think what a traitor would teach his children."

"Live free or die?"

"If so, hopefully he will reflect on who has paid the price for his freedom and show proper gratitude."

"Let's hope so," Jinto said gently. The service for their two fallen comrades had been days ago, but it was still hitting Lafiel hard, as it always did. Adrian and one other crewman remained on a hospital ship. They had no replacements, so the Frikov were basically on a skeleton crew. "Is it my imagination or was Ekryua reluctant to leave Silesia."

That seemed to catch Lafiel's attention. "I also got that impression," she said thoughtfully. "She went back to the hospital ship twice, even after I had visited our wounded myself."

"One in particular, I'll wager," Jinto said.

Lafiel nodded. "Watching Adrian around her is rather like watching a worshipful kitten trailing behind its master. She pretends indifference but I'm sure she is aware. Having him work the laser batteries directly from the weapons station was her idea, she probably feels guilty about what happened."

_Lafiel still doesn't get it either. _"He probably owes her his life now."

"We all do, Jinto."

"True enough." There was a comfortable silence that Jinto was content not to break.

Before long, the radar interrupted the silence with an audio alarm that made Jinto jump. He relaxed a bit when he saw the signal came from the opposite direction of the Core, which was friendly space. Before long, the IFF signal appeared. "They're here early."

"Yes," Lafiel said, sounding just mildly concerned. They were not scheduled to be relieved of their picket duty for another half day.

Jinto ported the comm function to his own station. "Incoming signal. It's the squadron commander. She's requesting permission to board, and she wants to meet you and the XO."

Jinto was puzzled, and clearly Lafiel was as well. It could not be anything urgent if there were no orders to disengage from their picket duty, but the personal meeting was unusual. "Please send my regards and inform the squadron commander we will receive her in my quarters."

"Will do." Lafiel was quiet as they watched the squadron flagship approach. Jinto did not give voice to his own speculations.

# # # #

Lafiel served the drinks and sat down with Atosuryua and Ekuryua at the little table in her quarters. "Forgive my rudeness but I must get right to the point," Atosuryua said. "Properly this is a message I should have sent as soon as we were in range, but I wanted you to hear it in person from me. There are new results from the inspection of your ship. They found damage to the keel that they had missed during the field assessment. We are going to have to remove the Frikov from service."

"I inspected the X-rays along with my chief engineer," Lafiel said. "There was not a single stress fracture anywhere." Miraculously, she refrained from adding.

"And they still found none. But they did find this." Atosuryua touched her wristband and the wall screen slaved to it. It was a picture showing the keel that ran through the center of the frigate from stem to stern. Lafiel recognized it as the result of ultrasound analysis. Solid-state physics was not her field, but anyone who had been involved in ship inspections would know the meaning of the curved density lines that looped through the structure. "They are quite certain the lower density in the red areas means the layers of graphite whisker have separated. They have never seen it on this scale, but the stresses the keel had been under were highly unusual." She smiled sadly. "From what I hear they played the black box telemetry a dozen times before they would finally believe it. To make a long story short, the keel will have to be replaced."

Lafiel's heart sank. That practically meant tearing the ship apart, it would take weeks in a shipyard back in secure Imperial territory. "Has a location for the work been selected?"

"No."

Lafiel opened her mouth to respond but stopped when she realized that "no" did not mean "Not yet."

Atosuryua's look of sympathy gave the answer for her. She tapped her wristband and the schematic was replaced by an official Space Force notice. It was very long but the word "decommissioned" figured prominently in the title.

"I'm very sorry, but I had to concur that there is no choice in the matter," Atosuryua said. "The Frikov has served you well, but she has reached the end of her life."

Lafiel took a moment to calm herself and stifle the protests that welled up within her. There was no changing the laws of physics, and there was no excuse entrusting her crew to a ship that could fall apart at any moment.

Lafiel nodded. "I understand. Thank you for coming here to give us this news."

"You're welcome," Atosuryua said. Then she smiled. "But my real reason for coming here was to tell you about your new ship."

Lafiel was embarrassed by the sudden urge she had to grab Atosoryua's hands and thank her profusely. _Curse Seelnay that clingy lander, I am letting her be a bad influence on me. _"They have a new ship for us?" she asked in a voice that failed utterly to conceal her yearning.

"They will." Another tap and the Frikov's death sentence was replaced by a new document. It was a manifest for a new Devastator-class frigate. "That is, if you have no objection to staying in my squadron."

Lafiel beamed. "No objection at all, Commander, I am at your service."

"It is scheduled for completion ten weeks from now," Ekuryua said, her delicate high voice chiming in for the first time since they had greeted the Admiral upon her boarding. Lafiel looked more closely at the construction schedule. Sure enough, the date on the bottom was...

"That's seventy-three days from now!" Lafiel said. _Damn it, calm yourself, you sound like a spoiled child. _

Atosoryua laughed. Lafiel could feel her cheeks go red. The squadron commander was not chiding her, the woman's kind almond-shaped eyes exuded understanding to spare. But damn it all! "I am very grateful, squadron commander," she said quickly. "You are entrusting another ship to me after I have ruined this one. I promise I won't let you down again."

Atosoryua cocked her head. "Let me down?" She cleared the wall screen, picked up her drink and took a deep swallow. She looked intently at both officers. "Abriel Lafiel, Ekuryua Naurh, do you know what I spent a whole day doing a week ago? I spent the day in a meeting room with a lot of boring staff officers watching the thirty simulations that three different groups of the most experienced pilots at the Academy ran on your Silesia mission. Every single one ended in the loss of the ship with all hands." She looked intently at Lafiel. "It is I who have let you down. Against my better judgment I agreed to send you on a mission with too many unknown factors. I gave you an impossible mission, and for that you have my apology. You both did the impossible and for that you have my gratitude."

"I... have been fortunate in my choice of friends," Lafiel said, looking fondly at Ekuryua.

"I have recommended you for decoration, but sadly all that seems to have done is to hold off the inspectors who think you just broke every protocol and got lucky. We've been trying to tell them that the two of you have rewritten the book on how frigates are to be flown in combat but most of them still don't get it. I'm afraid a new ship is all I can offer you."

"It is more than enough," Lafiel assured her. "In the meantime, I and my crew will be happy to serve the squadron in any way, I know a lot of the ships are short of experienced crew."

Atosoryua smiled. "Actually I had something different in mind, and happily it has been approved. Your pardon, but just one more form letter." She tapped her wrist and the wall screen lit up with another official Space Force document. "Twelve weeks furlough for you and your crew, time enough for the knuckle-draggers to give your ship its shakedown cruise. Unlimited travel, anywhere you want to go. Unconditional, no early return for anything short of the barbarians knocking at the gates of Lakfakalle." She looked intently at Lafiel. "And that's an order. You've earned it."

Lafiel smiled. "Thank you, commander. I am grateful, my crew has certainly earned a break. I know there will be no ship for me to command but I would like to stay and serve the squadron in any capacity, if that is acceptable."

Atosoryua drained her drink, set it down hard and looked sternly at Lafiel. "No, that is not acceptable. I am not requesting a furlough for the crew of the Frikov, I am _ordering _it, and that means you too. Any protest to the contrary will be treated as insubordination and dealt with accordingly. Do I make myself clear, Hecto-Commander?"

Lafiel was quite astonished by the commander's uncharacteristic vehemence. "Yes, of course," she said quickly. "My crew will be very pleased."

"Well then you had best go tell them, hadn't you?"

# # # #

The party had been going on for nearly six hours now. Actually there were a number of parties going on at various points around the artificial lake that graced the center of the park deck on the Abh Space Force heavy transport ship. Theirs seemed to be the noisiest. No surprise, the thirty crew and officers of the Frikov were celebrating the start of their three months of freedom earned with three years on the sharp end of the Empire's war effort.

The venue, the food and the drink were all provided courtesy of the Abriel clan. It was customary for the landed gentry to provide the entertainment when it was time for the crew who served them to loosen up and enjoy themselves. The speeches had been short, few words being needed between pilots who had thumbed their noses at death together for years. They had said goodbye and shed their tears for their beloved ship days ago. Today when Lafiel had told them to forget about tomorrow for just a little while the cheers had been deafening.

The new model recreation ship had a white sand beach going all around the little lakes, the Space Force command finally having learned what landers regarded as the real purpose of a lake in a park. On a hunch, Jinto had secured volleyball nets and tetherball poles in case there was anyone else who knew what they were for. There were some, as it turned out, and after a few drinks more who wanted to join in. Even more also wanted to swim. By the time the ceiling started to dim and present a respectable simulated sunset, and the torches all around the party space were lit, most of the cavorting was being done by people in wet underwear. Jinto was no exception.

After having lost another tetherball match to chief engineer Gurinshia, Jinto staggered over to the nearest table with her. They both soon had a beer in one hand and a meat pastry in the other. "When I saw how you could swim, I should have figured I could never beat you at tetherball either," Jinto said after draining a good part of his beer.

"I grew up in a coastal town," the tall, stocky brown-haired lander said. "I misspent a good part of my youth on a beach. God I've missed it. I swear that's where I'll be right up until the M.P.s come drag me back into the transport."

"Done much boating?"

"Just windsurfing and jet-ski, anything bigger makes me seasick." She laughed. "That and the XO's flying. I know she's a genius but I went through four different anti-nausea medications before I found one that would keep me from losing my lunch every time she makes out with the ship."

They both laughed. The running joke was that the Frikov was Ekuryua's only love and they all got first-hand experience of her foreplay every time she brought them up to combat speed. By now she must have heard all the double-ententes, if she had any reaction then Jinto certainly never had heard.

"Speak of the devil-girl..." Gurinshia said. Jinto followed her gaze. Ekuryua and Adrian were talking together on the lawn. Jinto was glad to see he was up to walking with a cane now, the last time he had seen the injured Flyer he had been in crutches. "Poor boy doesn't know he's competing with a two-hundred meter-"

"Plaything?" Jinto offered quickly.

Gurinshia smirked. "If you want the cruder analogies then speak to my engineers."

"Speaking of whom, they've been trying to get your attention for a while."

She sighed. "Yes, I've been trying to ignore them but I can see it's not working any more." The engineering team were over by one of the volleyball nets, jumping and yelling for their "boss" to come join them again. "What have you done to us, Excellency? I swear they'll want to put up one of these nets in the engine room now."

"I will be happy to take the blame for saying no."

"I'll hold you to that, sir." She finished off her pastry, downed it with the rest of her beer and set down the glass. "Your pardon, but the kids just won't shut up."

"Have fun."

"'Til I puke." She ran off to be greeted by the hysterical cheering of her dear lower-decks family. Looking around he noted that Ekuryua and Adrian had been joined by Lafiel. He wandered over there. Since quite early on he had been too busy making a fool of himself around the water to talk with any of them. About halfway over he realized he would be the only one there in improvised beachwear, but it was a bit late to back out now.

"Good evening, Excellency," Adrian said as he approached. The eager-faced Abh man with short dark blue hair raised his glass in lieu of salute. Actual saluting of officers was discouraged during crew parties.

"Evening Adrian. You're looking much better."

"They say I'll be ready for duty by the time our new ship arrives."

"I hope being lame won't put a damper on your furlough. Any plans?" Jinto had asked just about everyone else. Most of the landers were going back to their home worlds and most of the Abh were going to the capital to visit friends and family.

"He's coming to Lakfakalle with me," Ekuryua said as if daring Jinto to be surprised.

He was. Lakfakalle was known as "the city of love." For Abh nobility who spent much of their lives in isolated family estates managing their holdings, visits to the capital were one of their few opportunities for meeting and courting other Abh nobility. To openly declare one was visiting the capital with an Abh of the opposite sex was all but announcing romantic intentions.

But neither Ekuryua nor Adrian were landed nobles, and long experience had honed Jinto's sensitivity to the unpredictable young woman's snares. He was not going to be trapped into saying "I'm happy for you" or any such thing, not even after this many drinks. He settled on "You can find just about anything there, Lafiel and I once even found a swimming pool." For Abh space cities, that actually was quite a rare item.

Adrian frowned. "Swimming pool? You mean, like that lake?"

Jinto had to explain the concept of a bath that was large enough and deep enough that one could not touch the bottom and had to float or move by paddling. Two of the landers were currently swimming across the lake, so he had an example to point to.

"Couldn't that be dangerous?" Adrian asked.

"It can be if you don't know how to swim. I wouldn't suggest trying it until your leg's healed."

"The pool at Lakfakalle is a military facility," Lafiel pointed out.

Jinto smiled. "I'm still working on making swimming a popular pastime in the space cities."

"I'll have to stick to spas for now," Adrian said.

"I can suggest a good one," Lafiel said. Jinto half-listened while they discussed the finer points of luxury living in the capital. He was more interested in the dynamic between Ekuryua and Adrian. He had noticed that while he held a drink she held a small tray of the choicest dainties. Every now and then she would take one and then feed him one. At one point she even took a small cloth napkin that was hanging across her wrist and wiped his lip with it. Nobody else seemed to find this unusual. True he was still practically invalid, but still...

After Lafiel described a particularly extravagant sounding restaurant meal that she recommended, Jinto wondered aloud whether that was the most expensive restaurant at the capital. "Probably," Lafiel said. "Our family estate has an agreement with the company that entitles us to some services. Oh, I guess I hadn't told you, I am lending them my estate while they are in the capital."

"That will be nice." And not unusual, he decided. Jinto had taken advantage of her family's hospitality when he was in the capital. "I don't remember eating at that place when we were on your estate."

"You had us too busy swimming. It seems to be an obsession with you Jinto, you weren't here an hour before I saw you lose your uniform and get wet."

She had left herself wide open but Jinto was not feeling brave enough to bite. "I actually haven't been doing much swimming, got caught into too many tether-ball games."

"So that's what you call it. It looked like a contest of brute strength but from what I've been seeing there does appear to be some tactical elements. Can I give it a try?"

"Um... sure, but you'll be getting sand all over your uniform."

"No I won't." To his horror Lafiel put her mostly empty glass down on the lawn and started unbuttoning her tunic. Abh tolerated the landers prancing about in their underwear but no natural-borne Abh would ever think of doing such a thing in public. He knew Abh could not get drunk so he really had no idea what was going on.

When Lafiel was done undressing, she placed her folded uniform carefully on the grass and stood up in her military-issue black one-piece swimsuit. "When you told me about your plans for the party I came prepared. Shall we go?"

"Sure," Jinto said hesitantly. _I guess that means I am your opponent?_

Ekuryua flashed him an unusually sunny smile. "You kids have fun."

"Thanks." He and Lafiel moved leisurely towards the beach. When they were out of earshot he said "I'm glad to see she's not ignoring him now."

"They are getting along," Lafiel said noncommittally.

"I hope this isn't just some guilt trip for Ekuryua, her manner seemed more motherly than anything."

"As long as they are both happy."

"I'm just worried."

"You're just curious."

"You're not?"

"Yes, but I have tact."

"Are you sure that you have no secret to share? Ow!" Jinto staggered and nearly fell. "That hurt!"

"That's because I kicked you, hopefully it will teach you the importance of tact."

"This will give you an unfair advantage in our game," Jinto said exaggerating his limp.

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm in bare feet."

"It still hurt."

"Then it will be my beginner's handicap."

Their arrival at the beach area had already attracted attention, as Jinto knew it would. Lafiel's swimsuit was very modest, but it was certainly the most daring thing anybody except for Jinto had ever seen her wear. Some of the male landers stared as if the Mother of God had just descended from Heaven. This included the two men who had been in the middle of a game at the tetherball pole they approached. Lafiel smiled sweetly. "Gentlemen, may we impose upon you for a while?"

"Of course," they said in unison, backing away and not quite bowing. The poor fellows were in shock. The noise level went down lower than it had been since the party began, there were little more than murmurs. Jinto unwound the ball in preparation for the game.

"Commander!" Lafiel turned to where Gurinshia shouted. "I'm the only one who's beaten him, so watch yourself. Keep the ball high, jumping is his weak point!"

"My thanks," Lafiel called. She grinned at Jinto. "Pilot, prepare for battle."

It must have lasted more than an hour and was utterly merciless. By the end everyone was watching and was hoarse from cheering. After a grueling back-and-forth, Lafiel graciously conceded five out of nine. After bringing them towels and water and laying out a selection of leftovers from the tables, the crew left the combatants to their privacy in the Place of Honor that had been set up overlooking the beach area. When he was only feeling half dead Jinto finally asked "So who has been training you?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

"It was Gurinshia, I'll bet anything it was her."

"She gave me some good advice, that is all."

Jinto smiled. "Your policy is always to move forward, given a choice. But I also know that you never move anywhere without laying the groundwork first. That is what's kept us alive."

Lafiel looked pensive. Jinto really hadn't intended for his statement to be weighed down with any deep meaning, to him it was just obvious. "That's right," Lafiel said softly. "That is the advice I gave Ekuryua. Even love requires groundwork." She looked at Jinto. "She regards you as her friend so she would not mind my telling you. She means to confess."

"I see." Jinto smiled. "So I was right to be happy for them."

"It is not easy for her. Taking care of things is all she knows. Being cared for, that is what she must learn to accept."

Jinto could see the groundwork that Lafiel had laid. It was a field where Adrian would enter an invalid needing care, but would transform before Ekuryua's eyes into a man she could imagine caring for her. "You understood better than I did."

"I think you understood well enough, it was just me she confided in."

"No surprise, she still regards me as a kid."

Lafiel sighed. "She confided in me because we are both women, that's just basic."

"Nevertheless, let's both support them as we can."

"That's what friends are for, Jinto."

"But I will stick to giving advice on less weighty matters."

"For instance?"

"Well, I would suggest you try one of these."

Their epic tournament had become a signal that the festivities were winding down. Many had wandered away soon afterward and others drifted off in twos and threes. Before long it was just the two of them surrounded by torches in the simulated night, which was more of a silvery twilight lit by a bright artificial star-field.

Finally she asked the question. Jinto smiled. "I haven't decided for certain, but I'm thinking of going back to Delktou.

Lafiel frowned. "I thought you had a falling out with your friend there."

"Yes, I pretty much have." She was referring to Dorin Ku, a man Jinto had met when they were both in school on Delktou and Jinto was learning Baronh in preparation for entering the Imperial Space Force academy. They had become very good friends, and Jinto had shown up years later hoping to hire him as a vassal to work in his territories. But Dorin had soured to the Abh and now regarded Jinto as a collaborator with soulless genetically neutered machines. They had parted on bad terms.

"So are there other people you know on Delktou?"

"Yes, there's a family I got to know when I was staying at their house on a language immersion plan during my summer vacations."

Lafiel took a moment to mull that over. Jinto imagined her having trouble with the term "summer vacation." To the Abh, the four seasons were used as themes for the four basic sorts of gardens they liked to make for themselves in their space cities and estates. It took some mental gymnastics to see them as units of time.

"I recall you mentioning them once or twice. They are on a small... island, are they not?"

"Yes, a tropical island, Moruweka. One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It has a sort of enclave for Imperial citizens, so Baronh is the common language."

Lafiel raised an eyebrow. "I had thought it was just the family who spoke Baronh."

"No, on their section of the island it's pretty much everyone. It started off with Imperial citizens who retired from the forces or the merchant fleets and settled down there. They all started teaching Baronh to their children and grandchildren to get them a head start if they wanted to go work off-planet. The community just sort of grew naturally."

"So you went there for language training."

"They call it immersion. Nothing but Baronh from morning to night. I was really struggling in school so my teachers thought I would benefit."

"I see, they were your last, best hope for learning the language."

Jinto laughed. "That first summer was pretty awkward. Imagine a teenager with the vocabulary of a five-year old. But they helped me a lot, so I went back two more summers. I got to know them pretty well, and I've always had an open invitation to go visit them again."

"You've kept in touch?"

"Yes, since Delktou was liberated I was able to resume correspondence with Geith. He's about my age, so we became pretty good friends back then."

"Still, I don't imagine you can just show up."

"When our furlough was announced I sent a message to Geith. I got a letter back two days ago. I was expecting him to confirm the open invitation but he practically begged me to come and talk to him about their new business idea."

"Is that something you can talk about?"

Jinto put up his hand protectively. "Don't have expectation of anything grand, this place is very small-scale. In a way it was an idea inspired by you."

Lafiel looked puzzled. "By me?"

"I told Geith about how much you enjoyed our fishing trip on Hania, and that got him thinking. They already rent out rooms to Delktou citizens on vacation or people like me who want language immersion. Now they want to advertise their home as a place to stay for Imperial citizens who are taking a break and want to try out something different."

"What's to do there?"

"Mostly water sports. They had me sailing, wind surfing, aqualung diving, water skiing and even underwater caving. I swear I spent more waking hours off land than on."

"So are they responsible for your obsession with swimming?"

"Since then I've been swimming maybe three times, that's a rather meager obsession. But the island is interesting too. Only the coast is developed so the rest is jungle. Without satellite link you could easily get lost. There are some tall hills too, you can climb right up into the clouds if you want."

"You make it sound like a playground, how do people make a living?"

"Many of the people in the enclave are retired or semi-retired, living off investments. There's a lot of tourism related work. Geith is studying botany but his brother is already working as a park ranger and guide. His sister runs a fish farm. Their father was in the Imperial Marines, he's really got some stories to tell. He sometimes gets hired to take people on extended tramps in the jungle, I can tell you his climbing trips aren't for the faint of heart. But it's worth it when you get back and his wife has a feast waiting for you. And before you ask no they don't smother everything in cream like they do on the mainland, it's mostly seafood."

Lafiel looked reservedly thoughtful. "It could be a workable venture. It would be very much a niche market."

"Of course, strictly for the irresponsible."

"In a new service business, building a reputation is always the hardest task."

"That's one of the things he wants to talk to me about. And you."

"Me?"

"He said the open invitation extends to you. They'll have a two-bedroom suite kept open for the next three months, we're free to stay with them as long as we want. Geith says the whole family has been dying to meet you."

"Okay."

Jinto blinked. "Okay...?"

"Yes, you can tell them I would be delighted to accept their invitation. How much notice do they need?"

"Um... none, we can just show up."

"Good, then I'll leave the travel arrangements to you." Lafiel cocked her head. "You are going, aren't you?"

"Of course!"

"Then it's settled." Lafiel stood up. "I think it's time we turned in. Can I leave you to tell housekeeping the site is ready to clean up?"

"Leave it to me."

"Thanks." She smiled. "And for the game, I enjoyed it."

"I think everyone enjoyed it as much as we did."

"Good night, then."

Jinto sat and watched her go pick up her uniform and take the path to the hatchway at the edge of the park deck, now lit by lamps and torches. It was very hard to keep the smile off his face. He wanted to congratulate himself on having convinced his Princess to get her feet dirty one more time. There was only one thing bothering him.

That had been way too easy.

End Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

**Furlough**

**A Banner of the Stars Story**

Chapter 2 – Island under the Clouds

"I see it," Lafiel said, squinting her eyes and pointing to the horizon. "A long white cloud." It was the only cloud in the sky.

"That's Moruweka," Jinto confirmed. He had told her that the first thing she would see is the cloud that the island's high hills always coaxed from the prevailing winds. There were other people on the open prow of the big hydroplane, braving the strong airflow of the ship's swift, smooth passage across the water. Standing here against the railing that curved along the front of the white sea-vessel, it felt like they were flying right over the fractal chaos of the ocean waves. Only from the stern were they able to see the modest frothy wake left by the two pillars that bit through the water surface like a pair of knives. Lafiel had learned it was jets in the secondary hull below the surface that propelled them without making a sound. The speed and energy were modest, but it felt like they rode a whirlwind.

"What is that bird?" Lafiel asked, pointing to a bird passing close to the surface on their right, a big black and white creature with impossibly long, frail looking wings.

"Albatross. They eat small fish they scoop up from the surface. They like to follow boats, but not even they can keep up with this one. Some of them don't touch land for months."

They had seen very few birds, though Jinto assured her there were many more around the island. It was still odd to think of animals wandering across land, sea and air at will, owned by nobody, cared for by nobody, controlled by nobody. The least of creatures had a kind of freedom that was hard to imagine.

The hydroplane was taking them from the small floating spaceport where their transport had landed. Nobody liked noisy ships landing near their homes, so the floating port served both Moruweka and several groups of smaller islands some distance in the other direction. Moruweka itself was the largest island in its own archipelago, far more isolated than the rest.

"It's still three hours away, there won't be much to see for a while," Jinto said.

Lafiel's eyes were watering from the brisk airflow, and he had warned her not to get too much sun all at once. "Perhaps we should go back inside."

They sat across from each other at their assigned table beside one of the high tinted windows that lined both passenger decks. Being in the climate-controlled cabin put Lafiel more at ease. It had not really been uncomfortable outside, but a small part of her still had a visceral reaction to strong winds and variations in air quality, as if it signaled malfunction of life support. The reaction had faded on her previous forays to surface worlds, it would do so again.

She was hoping this latest planetary adventure would be a more positive one.

Lafiel had no reason to believe otherwise. She had made it sound like the easiest thing in the world, just the two of them hopping on a shuttle and flying to a planet that was one of many in the Empire. But as the superior officer in the Space Force she was ultimately responsible for their safety, so in the days before their departure she had secretly pored over intelligence reports from the Vorash system. Politically the planet Delktou had settled considerably since they had come here four years ago in Jinto's abortive attempt to recruit vassals. Jinto had feared for her safety then. But Lafiel's inquiries had confirmed what Geith had been telling Jinto in their correspondence. Anti-Abh sentiments were still there, but isolated and contained.

So far Lafiel's blue hair, the most obvious distinguishing feature of the Abh, had attracted no comment and little attention. It was apparently not as rare a sight in and around Moruweka as it would be elsewhere on the planet. Nevertheless, Lafiel had felt it unwise to advertise her identity as a member of the Abriel ruling family, so she had made up her mind to hide her distinctive pointed ears while in public. Jinto's only advice for clothing, other than the obvious one to dress for the heat, was not to wear anything she would mind getting wet. So she had wired ahead to her family's chosen clothier to have sets of light dresses and of simple shirts and shorts prepared, all in waterproof quick-drying breathable fabric. For her head she had ordered a wide variety of headscarves, which would discreetly cover both her ears and the tiara that held her Froth sensor array. She wore one now, a wide cream-colored scarf that matched her sleeveless knee-length one-piece dress. Between that and the open-toed sandals she had decided on, which seemed to be a popular choice here, this was a lot less than she was used to wearing in public, it was hard not to feel exposed.

She had found quickly that the local dress was very casual and very loud. Jinto fit right in with his white shorts and bright red floral-pattern shirt. She had never seen him look so comfortable and content, it was like she was seeing him in his natural environment for the first time.

"This is a pleasant enough way to get there, but an air transport would be much quicker," Lafiel said.

"Moruweka has very strict noise regulations. The island government has some drones, other than that just a couple of aircraft for emergencies." Jinto grinned. "The way Thom explained it, they don't like people coming and going all the time. Anyone coming to Moruweka should have a good reason for coming and should plan on staying a while."

Thom was Geith's father, the retired Marine. Being in possession of an authenticated private letter from an Imperial citizen inviting her to consult on a business matter, Lafiel had privately exercised her right to request a background check on Geith and his immediate family. Based on what she saw the Kamrau family were exactly as Jinto described them. Geith was registered in a plant genetics study and research program. His brother Isu was a park ranger. His sister Emery had part ownership of a fish farm. His father was indeed in the Marines, though he was no ordinary ground-pounder. When he retired he had been kilo-commander of the Marines' primary mobile counter-insurgency unit. She could see how he would have a few tales to tell. Lafiel had used her authority as a Space Force officer to pull up his service record, which was a questionable action though none could call it an outright abuse of authority. That had certainly caught her interest. He likely had some stories that he had never even told his family.

They ordered a lunch and it was brought out to them. Jinto had cautioned her to expect food on public transportation to be no better than acceptable, though it was somewhat better than that. As he had indicated, seafood was dominant, and the emphasis was on delicate flavors and subtle spicing. It was a far cry from the assault on the senses Jinto had warned her to prepare for had she ever accompanied him to the mainland, something that was now very unlikely to happen.

When they were approaching the island, Jinto suggested they go back out to the prow for a better view. Since the ship was slowing down now, the airstream had been reduced to an agreeably brisk wind. It looked larger than she had expected. The ground was very irregular and seemed to rise straight out of the water, as if this were some partially submerged asteroid. But no asteroid ever supported such a riot of life. It seemed every square inch was covered by a tangle of greenery. The only exception was several enormous structures that she could only describe as pillars of rock. "Those rocks that go up into the clouds, they are really natural formations?"

"Yes, they're called volcanic plugs. It's very unusual to have so many of them this close together. They tell me that no small number of geologists have made their whole careers out of studying this island."

Lafiel counted at least six, and was sure there were more further away, dimmed by the atmospheric haze and the shade cast by the canopy of clouds into which they disappeared. "Is there any danger of new volcanoes?"

"No, they've been dormant for millions of years."

Lafiel could see more clearly on the nearest pillars that the impossibly steep slopes were carved into a set of vertical grooves of various size. She imagined that must be an effect of rain erosion. As they came closer she could see that her default assumption of a more or less round land mass had been entirely mistaken. The coastline was very irregular, with great long spurs of land – peninsulas she seemed to recall – jutting out and obscuring long, narrow bays that only became visible as they moved across the coast. She could glimpse dwellings along the coastline, clustered in areas where the land's rise from the sea was not quite so steep and dramatic. In those areas there was a thin white line at the water edge, no doubt the sand beaches that Jinto had been waxing eloquent over.

The ship turned into one of the bays. In addition to the scattered settlements along each shoreline, at the apex of the bay, set dramatically under those massive pillars of rock, was a larger settlement. "That town, is that where we are headed?"

"Yes. That's Oakuri. It's the only large town on the island."

The few lander cities and towns Lafiel had seen always struck her as being a random scattering of structures strewn between an only somewhat more ordered network of transport corridors. This was no exception. She could imagine why it was the only major town, it appeared to be the only stretch of land flat enough to accommodate even this modest concentration of buildings. Flat was a relative term though, the upper reaches of the town climbed into the surrounding hills.

As Jinto had said, there were birds of all sizes just about everywhere one cared to look, some high in the sky, others skimming the water. But something else in the water caught her eye, shapes moving below the surface. Suddenly one then another breached the surface, resolving as sleek, gray torpedo shapes, then disappearing in a white splash. "Those fish are enormous. Are they harvested?"

"They're not fish, they're warm blooded mammals. Those are called dolphins. The fish are fair game, but hunting sea mammals is illegal."

"Why, does somebody own them?"

"I guess you could say everybody has stewardship over them by proxy."

It seemed like an odd sort of stewardship, what with them having an entire ocean to wander in. Lafiel knew better than to ask further. She understood that like most lander worlds Delktou had a democratic government, and Moruweka had its own semi-autonomous elected council. On their mission to the Hania Federation, Lafiel and Jinto had become intimately acquainted with the Federation's own flavor of democratic governance. Lafiel still found the whole concept baffling, it sounded like a system where responsibility got passed around in circles. In school it had been suggested to her that this form of government worked passably well on a small scale, up to planetary authorities. She had also been cautioned that Abh nobility inquiring into the local politics of lander worlds was something to be discouraged, a warning she was inclined to heed.

Something else multiplying almost as rapidly as the wildlife was the traffic of sea vessels. She could see why safety required the hydroplane to slow to a crawl here, it was sharing the bay with a variety of smaller boats, no two of which looked alike. To her eye they were going every which way, but she also perceived there was an underlying protocol that established virtual corridors across the water. "It seems everybody gets around in water vessels."

"It's definitely the transportation of choice here. The coastal road is only big enough for two-wheeled vehicles, so besides scooters and bikes the only practical way to get around is by boat. Pretty much everybody owns at least one."

She could see that. Most every house along the coast had a pier, more often with a boat bobbing in the waves. Next to Oakuri an extensive marina extended out into the bay, with dozens of boats lined up. "Some of these boats appear to be sailing by wind power only."

"That's a very popular pastime here. The Kamrau family owns a pretty big sailboat." Jinto smiled. "We'll probably be clocking a lot of time on it."

Lafiel returned his smile. "I look forward to it." The wind was one thing she had come to appreciate on the surface worlds. The way it would come and go, sneaking up on her and playing with her, it felt like a capricious kitten was being embodied in the air itself. Harnessing it and dancing with it looked looked to be an elegant affair. And it also mitigated one thing Lafiel did not appreciate quite so much, the oppressive heat. It was midday now and quite a bit warmer than when they had departed from the spaceport this morning. Clouds had been steadily gathering all morning, but they were small and scattered and provided infrequent shade. It was only mildly uncomfortable, but Lafiel could feel herself perspiring just standing here.

The ship intercom made an announcement, then repeated in Baronh that they would be arriving shortly. That was something new, all communications at the spaceport had been in the local Delktou language and Lafiel had been depending on her tiara's translator. Some of the speech she had overheard from other passengers had been in the Abh native tongue. She had even spotted a couple of people with the distinctive Abh blue hair, and they had looked to be of her race rather than the dyed hair that some landers sported with motivations ranging from reverence to irony. On most lander worlds, seeing more than one Abh in one place would be exceedingly rare, here it seemed to inspire nothing more than the odd casual glance.

Lafiel heard Jinto's wristband chime. He touched it to accept the call. His smile indicated it was the expected caller. "Just a text message from Geith confirming where to go."

When their transport had come through the Gate from plane space, they had received a message indicating that Geith and his sister would be here to meet them in a private room. It was standard protocol for greeting somebody who had arrived from off-world regarding a business venture, which was a nice gesture, but Geith's message had emphasized it would be many days before they would impose upon her to consult on their venture.

Soon the ship was settled into its berth. The umbilicals came out from the glass terminal next to the pier and the passengers started filing out. "Geith is probably going to give me a big hug, and I'm embarrassed to say Emery probably will too," Jinto said. "Don't be concerned, they know enough to give you some space."

Lafiel hummed an affirmative monosyllable. Abh were notoriously sensitive to violations of their personal space, and Lafiel was no exception, so she could not fault Jinto for trying to set her mind at ease. Most people filing out of the umbilical were being greeted by people right here in the large assembly hall. Some were being greeted with a lot of noise and back-slapping, no doubt family and old friends returned from extended absence.

Jinto led them to their designated room and pressed the door chime. The door slid open and the two of them walked into a small meeting room. A young man and woman stood there, both smiling broadly. They were both quite tall, with very similar light brown skin and black hair. They looked very much like siblings. The man was very broad in the shoulder, the woman quite slim and athletic looking. Their shirts and shorts were a bit more sedate than what seemed to be the norm here. That seemed to be their only concession to formality, because as Jinto predicted first the man then the woman gave Jinto a big hug with assurances that he hadn't changed a bit. They all immediately turned to face Lafiel. "Geith, Emery, I would like you to meet Lafiel."

"Welcome, Lady Paryun," Geith said, bowing.

"Welcome, Lady Paryun," Emery repeated, also bowing, and still smiling warmly. "We've been dying to meet you."

Lafiel smiled. "The pleasure is mine." _Well, that settles that. I couldn't really expect them to call me Lafiel, it was probably all Jinto could do to persuade them not to call me Highness. _"I am grateful for your hospitality."

"It's going to take them a while to get your luggage out to our boat," Geith said. "Why don't we sit down for a while. Can we get you something to eat." Jinto said they had eaten on the ship.

They all sat down at the table and Geith served drinks. "You just got off a long boat ride," Emery said. "I hope you don't mind starting another one right away."

"Not at all. I gather it's something I'll be doing a lot."

"It's just a short hop to our house, not much more than an hour. You can meet the rest of the family there, mom's making a huge dinner. Everyone wanted to come out and meet you here but Geith didn't want this to turn into a delegation." The look she gave her brother said she thinks he worries too much.

"I take it Jinto told you we've had some experience hosting members of the Imperial gentry," Geith said in a little more serious tone. "Certainly we've never had a visit from the Abriel ruling family. We'll be doing everything we can to ensure your privacy and security, but I just wanted to ask if there is anything in particular you'll need from us while you're here."

"Jinto has had nothing but good things to say about how well you took care of him while he was staying with you. I am confident that your home is the perfect place to relax and forget about the war for a while."

"We hope it will be," Geith said, clearly relieved. The Abriels were rather secretive, at least most people seemed to think so, and one consequence was that a lot of odd rumors circulated about them. Lafiel got the impression Jinto had been telling Geith quite a bit about her, but nonetheless they understandably would have some anxiety over what to expect from a member of the Imperial ruling family.

"I confess I was intrigued to learn about the community of Imperial citizens living here on the island. Usually enclaves of Citizens on a surface world are gathered around some business enterprise or Imperial government institution, but I gather this is something different."

"It's more of an accidental community," Emery chimed in. "A long time ago some people from Delktou who had become Citizens and made their fortunes off-planet decided to return here and live off their investments. Back then the environment for Imperial citizens was rather hostile, so some of them bought properties from locals here on the island, where they were more likely to be left in peace. The prices they were paying for these houses was insane, so more locals put their houses up on the open market. The island's governing council saw this as a way to bring in more money, so they passed laws allowing Imperial citizens to inherit property just like the territorial citizens."

"That's unusual," Lafiel said, genuinely surprised. Imperial property holdings on surface worlds tended to be very limited and restricted to commercial trade enterprises and cooperative government ventures. "Was there no backlash?"

"Not until about fifty years ago when the Council got greedy and proposed selling public land," Geith said. "Even most Imperial citizens here thought that was a bad idea. We can't vote or hold public office, but by then we were about a quarter of the population and more than half of the economy, so we had some influence. Public land is now strictly off limits and sales of private holdings to anyone not already a landholder need the approval of the community council."

"That was actually rather clever," Emery cut in. "There are nine community councils, one for each of the nine bays on the island. Imperial citizens are the majority in three of the bays, and they are voluntary organizations, so we can be members."

"So three of the bays have effectively become open to immigration by Imperial citizens," Lafiel concluded aloud.

"That's right," Emery said, nodding. "But a lot of the old blood islanders won't sell for any price, and most of the ones that would have already done so. It's pretty much a status quo now."

"Is there any animosity with the original inhabitants?"

"It's more or less a state of two solitudes," Geith said. "We earned a lot of good will by helping stand up to the Council when they wanted to really open things up. The old blood islanders realized we're here because we like this place the way it is, just like them."

"What my brother is trying to say tactfully is that we ignore each other when we can and look out for each other when we have to," Emery said. Her grin widened. "And sometimes we marry each other. Mom is as old blood islander as they come."

Marriage, or any sort of permanent pair-bonding, was something unknown and mysterious to the Abh. She knew it was common among landers for a married man and woman to remain together even after they had raised children to adulthood. She was intrigued by the prospect of becoming acquainted with a couple who had done so. "As I understand your mother was a territorial citizen before she met and married your father."

"Yes, but she would be the first to tell you that even now she is an islander first, Imperial citizen second and couldn't care less about not being a Delktou territorial citizen any more," Emery said.

"Moruweka is an unincorporated territory," Geith said. "That's just a fancy way of saying it is under the authority of the Delktou territorial government but handles its own internal affairs."

"Sort of like the relationship between the Empire and the territorial governments," Jinto said, making a point that Lafiel thought was obvious.

"Did you have difficulties during the United Mankind occupation?" Lafiel asked.

To her surprise they both laughed. "Forgive me, My Lady," Geith said quickly. "The reason that's funny is in the three years of occupation no United Mankind official ever came to this island or communicated with the Governor's office. We doubt they were even aware Imperial citizens live here."

"Our biggest worry was being cut off from friends in the Empire," Emery said. She smiled and stroked Jinto's hair affectionately. "Especially this guy, we were really happy to find out he's found somebody reliable to take care of him."

Lafiel smiled. "Jinto and I have been taking care of each other since we met."

"He's always described you as dedicated to a fault," Geith said. "I was really happy to hear you had agreed to stay with us for your furlough, I'm sure you must have had many obligations competing for your time."

"Our superior ordered us to forget our obligations while we can, and I intend to follow that order."

"Is there anything in particular you want to do while you're here?" Emery asked eagerly.

"Jinto described so many things that he did here, I hardly know where to begin. Everything, really."

That answer seemed to please both of them, Emery especially. "That's what I like to hear!" she beamed. "I can see you're going to fit right in."

"I know you just had a very long trip," Geith said. "But I hope that for today you're at least up to a nice long dinner."

"By all means."

Soon Geith got notification that their baggage had been delivered, so they made their way to the Kamrau's boat. The sleek white craft was bigger than Lafiel imagined a private craft would be. Much of the rear section was an open deck with seating around the outside that could comfortably accommodate a dozen people. A semi-enclosed glass canopy amidships held the cockpit and stairs going to the lower deck. There was a lounge and galley there with wide windows on each side, and also sleeping berths. After being shown around Lafiel was led back on deck where Geith and Jinto were already engaged in getting the boat underway. She and Emery sat further back where another tinted glass canopy offered protection from sun and wind. While Geith and Jinto were getting caught up, Emery acted as Lafiel's guide. She talked about everything. On the way out from Oakuri she pointed out the best restaurants and music clubs that Lafiel might like to go to whenever they came back to the town, most of which were visible from the pier area. She knew the names and habits of every bird they saw, of which there was an astonishing variety. As they retraced the hydroplane's path back out of the bay, she pointed out one or two houses owned by prominent Imperial citizens. In this bay, most property was still owned by territorial citizens... or rather islanders as Lafiel gathered they preferred to think of themselves.

As they came out of the bay the boat picked up speed. The ride was not as smooth as the big hydroplane had been, though the narrow prow seemed to do a fine job of slicing through the waves with little fuss. Emery was pointing out things like what birds to look for if you wanted to find schools of dolphins to go swimming with or wanted to go fishing for Marlin. It was interesting, but Lafiel got the impression Emery had been given primary responsibility for Lafiel's care and wanted to get to know her host better. "Emery, you are obviously very much at home here, have you lived on Moruweka all your life?"

"That's right, born and bred."

"Have you traveled much?"

"I've been to the mainland a few times. I even went up the space elevator once to try out microgravity sports."

"Did you do Jousting? That's my favorite." It was a game where two opponents tied at the wrist to the ends of a long elastic cord tried to score hits with a padded baton as they flew past each other.

"I did, but I ended up doing a lot of spinning and getting tangled in the cord."

"Spin control is the hardest skill to master. If you watch experienced players you will see their arms and legs are extended and in constant motion, their cord-arm will be pulled in only when the cord is taut."

"I'll bet that's what I was doing wrong, that's exactly when I would get pulled into a spin."

"Likely your opponent was pulling or relaxing the cord to position you."

"If so then it was beginner's luck. I was playing with my girlfriend and she had never done it before either. We were only up there for a couple of days so we didn't have much of a chance to get better. The trip was her birthday present to me, I think she just wanted us to stay the night in the microgravity rooms."

Lafiel felt she was missing some subtext but decided to steer clear. "Most Abh have been playing microgravity games since before they can remember."

"Just like I've been swimming since before I can remember. Jinto said that you've learned."

"Yes, only in a pool and a small lake."

"The ocean is a lot more fun. Especially in the coral reefs, the island is surrounded by cultured reefs."

Lafiel had a vague idea that a reef was the large calcified remains of some underwater organisms where a concentration of ocean life could be found close under the surface of the water. From what Emery was describing, it was a riot of life that no garden could ever match. As such it was often the first destination for tourists. Emery seemed anxious to get Lafiel out there at the earliest opportunity. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

After passing across the entrance to two bays, the boat started angling in to the next one. Emery confirmed this is where their house was. Geith was slowing the boat, presumably for safety reasons. The surface traffic was much less than what Lafiel had seen around Oakuri, but there were more vessels than they had seen on the open ocean. She saw that the perpetual cloud over the island was offering shade on this side of the island, so Lafiel suggested they move onto the open deck for a better look. Standing by the railing and surveying the hills on both sides, Lafiel had to agree with Jinto's assessment, this was one of the most beautiful places she had ever seen. The hills were covered with every shade of green. In some of the few places where bare rock showed, waterfalls either tumbled down the rocks or streamed straight down into the ocean. In other places the land rose more gently from the sea, effectively forming smaller bays within the larger one. As per the pattern she had seen, this was where individual homes and tiny settlements could be seen close by the shore.

"So these homes are all owned by Imperial citizens?" Lafiel asked.

"Pretty much. This is where our little enclave really begins. Koitoka Bay in particular is more cosmopolitan than the other two where it's mostly Citizens. Properties here got bought up a bit later so a lot more of them were from off-world. That's why Baronh is the common tongue. About four thousand people all told. Some keep to themselves, but we know just about everybody. See that house?" She pointed to a particularly large, isolated home on their right. "That's where Fremin Sidni lives."

"Of Fremin Manufacturing?"

"The same."

"They're a third-generation peerage." And one of the key suppliers in the war effort.

"Sidni isn't in the direct succession, so he decided to cash out his holdings and retire here. Spends most of the time cruising in his submersible yacht, that's where he is now."

Emery pointed out some other homes they passed. Most were citizens without a peerage, but from what Emery described many had met with a degree of success and prestige in the Empire that could easily have earned them a title. And yet they had decided to settle here.

There was one thing Lafiel had been watching for. Upon approaching the island, her wristband had automatically joined the local civilian wireless network. Because hers was military grade, it had also sent out an encrypted ping for peer nodes. There had been one. That was not necessarily unusual. On planets that had been retaken after being under occupation by one of the Triple Alliance partners, the Imperial Space Force often set up joint network management with the territorial government to guard against any sabotage or surveillance that the enemy might have put in place. After the handshake and key validation, the peer node had transmitted its physical location. Through her tiara, Lafiel's Froth sense was showing her that location. Projecting that to her visual field was something she did as naturally as breathing. She glanced high to the left and saw a structure hidden in the trees at the top of an outcrop of rock. It did not show much more than some tinted, silvered glass windows at two different levels. She pointed. "Emery, is that also a private residence?"

Emery looked and smiled. "Ah, not many people notice the House on the Hill. That's owned by another one of the handful of people here with a peerage. Dad met him a couple of times at council meetings, but he mostly keeps to himself. Lives alone and almost never leaves, as far as anyone can tell. Maybe you would know more about him than we do, his name is Ranef Duben."

"He's not somebody I've met," Lafiel said truthfully, keeping her voice neutral. "I was just wondering since I thought private land was only on the coast."

"It is, but the inland limit is measured horizontally. If your piece is where the slope is really steep then you've got a house on a hill. Those tend to be the recluses where the only access is by stairway. A couple like Ranef spent a fortune and tunneled their own elevators. That's also where the coastal road turns into a tunnel, though calling it a road instead of a sealed path is a bit of a stretch. When your island is this small you tend to try and make everything sound grander than it is."

"I was actually surprised at how large the island is seen up close."

"From your usual perspective looking down on whole planets, it must look like a speck."

"I never saw the island from space."

"You're not missing much, it looks sort of like an unholy crossing of a crab and an octopus with whipped cream on top."

Lafiel smiled. "I've eaten both crab and octopus but never with whipped cream."

"Don't worry, mom would never ruin a perfectly good crab like that." She glanced forward. "Why don't we rejoin the fellows, we'll be getting to the house soon."

"Okay." Lafiel paused for a look back before following Emery to the cockpit. She wondered what the son of a Duke and Fleet Admiral was doing living far outside his realm and what he was doing with Space Force comm gear. _I think there is more to this place than Jinto led me to believe._

# # # #

Jinto had been wondering what would be different after eight years. In fact there was only one thing he could say was really different this time. _She is with me. Or she will be __again__, __just__ as soon as I get her back from Emery._

Geith's little sister had been barely thirteen the last time he saw her, and a right holy terror no mistake. He had to admit some trepidation to leaving Lafiel in her care, which seemed to be the unspoken arrangement... by design, he was sure, in this household nothing important was left to chance. Their mom and dad each had their own way of fostering good sense in people, and now their youngest had clearly absorbed some more of that good sense.

Hopefully enough to know that Lafiel was strictly off-limits. Reading between the lines of Geith's letters, he gathered she had come out not long after Jinto had said goodbye to them. Probably broke some poor boys' hearts, even then it was obvious she was going to be a stunner. But just the fact that she was gainfully employed suggested that much had changed for the better.

Geith, on the other hand, was still just plain Geith. Happily, not marriage nor a kid on the way could change that.

His role in Jinto's education had been to teach Jinto the language of wasting time. It was something they both applied themselves to with great dedication. They had spent entire afternoons lying together on the beach deciding what the shape of every cloud that passed overhead looked most like. They had spent entire days making the most elaborate sandcastles, only to jump all over them and start afresh the next morning. On his last summer here, when they were both a little older, their most ambitious tribute to wasting time had been the traditional Islander's rite of passage, going around the island in a boat powered by just sails and oars. It had taken days longer than it needed to, with many nights spent on the beach under the stars or in the beach house of somebody who took pity on them.

He and Geith had been two peas in a pod and always got along well. Probably the only thing that had prevented them from becoming best friends was the knowledge deep down that this was an arranged affiliation which must soon end. But for just a little while, they had been brothers.

Just as duty had called Jinto away, soon it would call Geith away. When they had been able to resume their correspondence after the occupation, Geith had already been in university on the mainland for a couple of years. Previous to that, he had not been off the island for more than a few days. As soon as he was able he had arranged to continue his studies in plant genetics here on the island. His grandparents had thought ahead in building their house with a lot of spare rooms, so now one of those rooms was Geith's lab. And along the way he married a girl whom Jinto had known as a friend of the family. Now pulling into Koitoka bay once again, Jinto could only reach one conclusion.

"Geith, you're so comfortable now I really want to hit you."

Geith chuckled. "You know that never lasts long in this family."

"Too right." Islander culture was pathologically laid back, but there was also a fierce pride that seemed to demand expression in everyone Jinto met here. That applied to the Kamrau family more than most. "So you're still thinking about the New Territories?" That was how the Empire was referring to the systems they had occupied during Operation Twin Thorns.

"It's probably years away yet, but yeah, that's the plan. New colonies will be springing up like crazy and they all want something to show that's unique, I figure that's what granddad sold people on."

"We are serious about our gardens, no mistake."

"So it's 'we' now is it? When did that happen?"

"I don't even remember any more." That was no lie. Just when had the Abh stopped being 'they' and started being 'we'? Of course the 'why' of the matter was never a mystery, it always came back to her. He would accept anything that brought her closer to him, even being on the sharp end of the war to end all wars.

"So level with me Jinto," Geith said with an air of seriousness that Jinto would never have attributed to him back in the day. "I'm really feeling like I've pulled the trigger on a gun I didn't know was loaded. The granddaughter of the last Empress is really sitting back there and she's coming to stay at our house. Dad knows his way about and he's got no worries but I want to hear it from you." He looked earnestly at Jinto. "Are we heading for a squall?"

Jinto smiled. "No. Three-foot waves, maybe. Exactly the sort of weather where you told me the best thing to do is relax and go with the flow."

"So were you as surprised as I was this actually panned out?"

"Yeah, kinda. Lafiel is anything but predictable. But once she's decided on something, she's all in. I think she's going to have a blast and you're going to have another friend for life."

"Okay, so rig for a fresh breeze. Got it."

"I still really wish you'd accept your usual rates for rooming."

"Forget it, not going to happen. That one's unanimous."

"Then my gratitude," Jinto said, really meaning it.

"Likewise. Everyone would be tickled pink just to have you back, but they're all ecstatic over having your Princess here too."

_I really wish I knew why people keep calling her that. _"Nobody could be happier than I am. Just seeing this place again really brings back memories."

"Not much has changed. Whatever you want to see, it'll still be there."

"Our tree-house?"

"Hell yeah, that's where Isu and Emery always take their girlfriends to make out."

When Jinto had been staying here, the annoying presence of Geith's bratty sister had always been contrasted by the absence of his little brother. Isu was very much the lone wolf of the family. He would often disappear into the jungle for days, either by himself or with some friends. When he showed up Isu was always cordial to a fault, no doubt his parents had seen to that, but as far as outsiders went that was as far as it would ever go. It was no surprise that he was now working to manage the parkland that consisted pretty much the entire island.

As they cruised into the bay, Jinto pointed out the houses of people he had met, and was delighted to find out that people were up to pretty much what they had been eight years ago. It felt almost like they had put the island in cold storage waiting for his return.

He had been stealing the occasional glance back towards Lafiel and Emery, assuring himself that things were staying friendly but not too friendly. "It looks like the ladies have deigned to come visit us." When they got within earshot, he said "You two looked busy enough to have set our itinerary for the next three months."

"We have done no such thing," Lafiel assured him. "Tomorrow Emery was suggesting we go diving in the coral reefs."

"I would agree that's a great place to start."

"My Lady, that's our house," Emery said, pointing.

Both their large and small sailboat were docked at the family's pier, their sails furled. Nearby were the small glass-sided beach house and the shed for the jet-skis and kayaks. The pier became a walkway that went across the narrow beach and connected to the foot of a stairway leading up to the main house. That was a low, flat-roofed sprawling affair hugging the hillside and presenting a series of big windows and balconies. The jungle encroached closely on all sides. Barely glimpsed behind and above was the narrow coastal road.

Waiting on the pier were the four people Jinto expected to see... and one more familiar but unexpected sight. "When did you get a maid robot?"

"Just a few weeks ago," Geith said. "They've become very popular lately, and grandma can't do a lot of what she used to."

Jinto and Lafiel exchanged just a quick glance. They had an unfortunate encounter with that model during the Mimic rebellion in Hania. The doll-faced robot in her frilly black uniform was all too familiar. He knew the commercial models were perfectly safe, but he would probably never be entirely comfortable around them.

Geith deftly worked the maneuvering jets to bring them next to the pier. Emery threw out the stern line, and quickly getting into old habits Jinto threw out the one at the bow. The gangplank settled down with a gentle whine of motors and they all filed out. The first out, Jinto received a new set of hugs. First was Mari, now effectively the head of the household. She looked just marginally more frail than Jinto remembered. With her stout frame in the usual patterned skirt and blouse, her silver hair in the same bun and the same piercing dark eyes, she still gave the feeling of solidity that he recalled. Next was her son Thom, a tall, lean bullet-headed bald man who appeared to be all sinew and muscle. Similarly his wife had not changed at all. Beth was a dark-skinned islander with the broad smile and dreadlocks he remembered, just as tall and lean as her husband. It was Isu who had changed the most, impossibly he was taller and more ripped than his father now. He was in the khaki shorts and shirt of his park ranger uniform, Jinto could well imagine that he never wore anything else. His greeting was a bit more reserved, but he still had a crushing bear-hug for Jinto.

The new addition to the household was Chisha. Jinto remembered her as a quiet girl who sometimes visited the house, she was younger than Geith and him but always somehow seemed older. Jinto had really liked her, and had been very happy when he heard she and Geith were married. She was a third-generation islander like Geith. Her lightly tanned oval face framed by the same dark brown wavy hair still held that sense of kindness and serenity. She looked as if she would normally be quite slim, however with a baby obviously very soon on the way she was currently anything but.

Sadly, there was one missing. Mari's husband Ernst had passed away three years ago. He had been very interesting to talk to, but Jinto feared that as a young stripling he had not been able to fully appreciate the man's wit and wisdom. It was a shame they would not meet again.

Geith made the introductions, and they each greeted Lafiel in turn. By this time the ship's retractable crane had got their bags onto a small mobile walker under the maid robot's direction. Mari addressed herself to Lafiel. "My dear, you have come a long way, probably longer than any guest we have ever had. We are all eager to get to know you tonight when we sit down for dinner. But for now, let me show you to where you will be staying so that you can both have some time to settle in and relax by yourselves. Would that be agreeable?"

"Yes, very much so," Lafiel said. "I am just as eager to get to know everyone but we would both be grateful for a short rest right now."

Mari took the seat on the front of the walker, which ascended the stairs with its six articulated legs. They lost everyone else along the way as they begged off to resume kitchen work and other preparations. Mari took them along the long curving corridor that followed the contours of the hillside and formed the backbone of the house. Its floor-to-ceiling window variously showed the closely encroaching jungle and the little waterfalls that trickled down the rock face. The maid robot opened a double door for them and led them into a suite that was very familiar to Jinto. The big lounge opened onto a wide deck with sunken whirlpool. The bedrooms to either side also opened through glass doors to their own private decks. The lounge included a small kitchen to one side, though in his previous stays Jinto had almost never used it.

Mari asked if they could use any help from her or the maid robot unpacking, but they both declined. After Jinto had freshened up in the bath attached to his own bedroom, he poured himself a drink and went to sit on one of the lounge chairs out on the covered portion of the balcony. After a few minutes, Lafiel came out to join him. She returned his smile. "So how do you like the place?"

"It's beautiful, everything you said it would be. I'm surprised at the house, I had thought it would be a little more, how is it you said, 'roughing it'."

"If we go on one of Thom's famous tramps, it can get just as rough as you want." Jinto gazed intently at her. "You look a little worried, is everything alright?"

Lafiel sat down on the chair next to his. "I'm just concerned we might have dropped in on the family at a bad time, with Geith's wife being in that condition."

"I did tell you they had a baby on the way. Oh... I guess I never mentioned it was a natural pregnancy."

"I had just assumed otherwise."

Most Abh were conceived in-vitro and brought to term in artificial wombs. Lafiel's family was no exception. Natural pregnancy was rare enough among them that one could easily go through life never meeting a woman who was expecting. "I wouldn't worry about it. If I know Geith he's been spending far too much time hovering over Chisha. She will be relived that they have some guests to distract him for a while."

"Does she need any special care?"

"Just regular checkups by a doctor and plenty of rest, that's all."

"She appears to be in late term, do they not need to prepare for the birth?"

Jinto smiled. "When the time comes, that will involve calling the midwife and going down to the beach."

"The beach?"

"Birth in the water is the traditional islander way, and Geith says that's what they're planning. Most islanders can truthfully say they were swimming in the sea before they even took their first breath." He pointed down to the beach. "Both Geith and Emery were born right down there. Isu would have been too, but there was a hurricane so the midwife had to come by road and do the delivery in the pool."

"I can understand the pool, but the ocean? Isn't that dangerous?"

"This world was sterile before it was terraformed, the only organisms are the ones we put here. As long as the weather is decent it's perfectly safe."

"Did you witness any of these births?"

"Nope, men aren't invited."

"Oh... of course." Lafiel looked embarrassed, as if it had just occurred to her that natural childbirth involved the mother stripping below the waist and spreading her legs wide.

"The Kamrau are a lot more old-school islander than most people in the enclave. That's been Beth's influence, she mostly had to raise the kids while Thom was off-planet with the Marines."

"If Thom was largely absent, were the children subject to Birth Secrets?"

"Pretty hard to keep the birth secret when it's out on the beach."

"Idiot, you know what I meant."

"They always knew Thom was their father. He tried to be here when he could." Lafiel's father had kept her mother's identity a secret for years, a practice of Birth Secret that was common among the Abh. It was only shortly before she met Jinto when Lafiel found out that Lexshue Plakia, her commanding officer, was actually her mother. Lexshue had died in battle very shortly after Jinto had met her. Jinto suspected that Lafiel still harbored more bitterness towards her father for keeping that secret than she was willing to admit.

"So are you meeting Thom for the first time?"

"No, he retired from the Marines shortly before my last summer here, so by that time he was home to stay."

"And that is when they found out you were heir to Count Hyde?"

"I worked up the courage to confess just a few days before I was scheduled to go back to school. They were surprised, but unimpressed. Islanders are notoriously indifferent to social station, and that's rubbed off in the enclaves."

Lafiel smiled. "That must have been a great relief for you."

"It was. When I was ready to leave school on the mainland I finally confessed my identity to all my friends there and just got stunned silence."

"From what Emery has been telling me, many people here have spent much of their lives in positions of responsibility within the Empire. For them Abh with titles are more of a real thing than an imagined thing."

"I didn't really understand that until later. The people I met mostly didn't talk much about what they had done before they settled here."

"Did you ever meet Ranef Duben?"

"Who? Oh, right, he of the infamous House on the Hill."

Lafiel raised an eyebrow. "Infamous?"

"There are always rumors circulating about the recluses, especially that one. Mostly ridiculous stuff like they're ex-Emperors or hiding from Imperial arrest warrants. Few people have met Ranef, I certainly never did. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, I seem to recall my father mentioning that they met once or twice."

"That would certainly be a coincidence."

"Not if you're familiar with my father's social itinerary. He claims to have met half the peers in the Empire and that might even be close to the truth. Are there any courtesy calls you'd like to make while you're here?"

"There are some people I'd like to visit."

Jinto spent some time talking about people he'd met while he was here, mostly other Imperial citizens living here in Koitoka Bay. In one or two cases Emery had already told Lafiel things about them that Jinto had not known at the time. That made Jinto feel good, it showed Emery was really opening up to her. Geith's sister was frankly the wild card in this trip. Geith's many letters had given him some confidence that the brat had grown up, but it was a relief to see that confirmed before his eyes.

For a while they just sat and soaked in the view of the bay. The clouds had been getting progressively darker. Before long, it started to rain. "Right on schedule," Jinto said.

"The rain is under a tight schedule?"

Jinto laughed, she had been quite serious. "Sorry, that was a joke. If there's going to be rain, it usually comes in the late afternoon."

It was really coming down now. To Jinto's surprise, Lafiel got up and walked out to the edge of the covered portion of the balcony. She seemed to be mesmerized by the falling rain. He got up and went to stand beside her. "It's actually quite warm," he said, putting his hand out into the rainfall.

She did likewise. "Yes, it is," she said absently.

"I guess you've never actually seen rain before."

"I did, once," she said in a small voice, gazing out into the downpour. "On Lobnas, just before we found you."

"Oh." Jinto had nearly died there when he got caught up in a massive jailbreak on that prison planet. Only Lafiel's rescue operation had got him out alive. He took her hand and smiled. "I hope after you've been here, you'll have a happier memory of being rained on."

Lafiel smiled and took both his hands in hers. "I haven't said it properly yet, Jinto. Thank you for bringing me here."

"Thank you for coming, Lafiel. It means everything to me."

"Jinto, I want to experience being rained on properly. Will you join me?"

"Sure."

# # # #

Not long after they had changed into dry clothes, Mari came to call them to dinner. The dining room was all glass on two sides, one looking into jungle and the other looking out over the bay, now dappled with beams of sunlight piercing through the dispersing rainclouds. The rest of the family was seated at the dining table. Mari directed Lafiel to one end of the table where she was flanked by Emery and now Jinto, then took the remaining seat at the other end. As someone who had spent years running a major business within the Empire, Lafiel knew Mari was not seating them like this by accident. Lafiel was being recognized as the guest of honor, Mari as her host and Emery as her guardian while she was here. The toast Mari made to her prosperity reinforced Lafiel's assessment. Lafiel was offered her choice of local drink and the first course was brought out. The familiarity of the courteous ritual comforted her.

Even the first question Mari asked her was true to Abh tradition. "The room is beautiful, especially the artwork you have decorated it with. The sculptures look familiar, are they yours?"

"Yes, My Lady. From Jinto's letters, you have been to at least one estate where my husband and I designed the garden, the Rekef estate in the capital."

"It was a few years ago but I remember it well. The sculptures were inconspicuous but somehow they have stuck in my memory."

Mari's smile and voice lost much of their formality and took on what Lafiel would describe as an ironic tone. "Any time an Abh lord puts out a request for proposal regarding the interior of his estate, there are footnotes pointing to the standards set by the established art schools. Subverting those standards just enough to be memorable but not enough to lose the contract is a tightrope walk I became very familiar with."

It turned out Lafiel had been in a number of places where Mari's husband had designed the garden and she had created the artwork it was decorated with. Jinto had given Lafiel a vague idea that Ernst had a background in engineering and gardening, but as Mari fleshed out his profile it was obviously more complex than that. He had been the studious third son of a prosperous Delktou family who had dreamed of traveling off-planet. Very early he enrolled in a civilian academy of the Imperial Merchant Fleet. Unsure of the career he wanted, he took a dual track of space engineering specializing in environmental control and terraforming theory specializing in ecosystem design. He gained the attention of a merchant headhunter who suggested that his skill set positions him perfectly for a more specialized field: space habitat ecosystem design. On his first major project he leveraged his passion for gardening and came up with a radical design that lets a complex yet low-maintenance recreational garden perform much of the air and water purification and food production for habitats. Years later he had met Mari, already a respected sculptor whose work was well known and sought after. They began collaborating on projects and before long they were married. Just a couple of years after Thom was born, they had decided to sell their interest in the company to a set of their apprentices and settle on Moruweka.

"How did you find out about this island?" Lafiel asked.

"Ernst had been here once on vacation, and through our business contacts on Delktou we found out that properties were being sold on the open market."

"I confess I had been wondering why somebody who had enjoyed such great success would settle on a remote island, but after seeing it for myself it is no wonder at all."

Mari's knowing smile suggested she caught on to the question Lafiel had been too polite to ask directly. "It had not been an easy decision for either of us. Ernst had been offered a Baronage in a system that had a lot of potential for development. The time had come to either fish or cut bait, either become part of the Imperial nobility or return to our roots. Perhaps it is hard to understand for somebody who believes in always moving forward, but we decided to take a step back."

It seemed Jinto had been telling them quite a bit about her, more than she had thought. "I can understand why you would return to the place you call home. I have come to appreciate the lander worlds, but my home will always be among the stars, I doubt I could bring myself to leave them for good."

"Oh, Ernst and I learned to feel quite at home in space. Ultimately we decided that taking a peerage would have forced some decisions on our children that we would rather let them make for themselves. We've kept up our contacts in the business and until recent years continued to do some consultation work, but we also settled into the local community. We taught our children both Baronh and Delktou and always impressed upon them that they could become part of whatever world they wanted."

"I thought you had just the one child."

Thom laughed. "Mom, you're busted, you'd better fess up."

Mari sighed. "Well since my son is so eager to tell you I'll leave it to him."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry into a private matter," Lafiel said quickly.

"No worries," Thom assured her. "The big secret is I have a younger sister, Aimi. She keeps in touch but none of us have seen her since years before we met Jinto. We're ashamed that not even the prospect of meeting Jinto's old friend could coax her back here, but she does have an excuse. She's a doctor with a practice in the department of reproductive health in Lakfakalle."

"That is a very prestigious institution," Lafiel said, genuinely impressed. "You must be very proud of her."

"We are," Thom said. It sounded like he really meant it. "Her practice specializes in advising first-generation peers on the mandatory genetic adaptations for their children. A lot of them feel more comfortable dealing with a fellow ex-lander. With all the titles being handed out in the New Territories, that's been keeping her busy."

"But aunty Aimi has told us she'll always be happy to take Jinto as a walk-in any time," Emery said playfully.

Jinto smiled nervously. "I'm still keeping myself busy with the Space Force, that's less scary than the prospect of fatherhood."

"The odd thing is," Thom continued, "If dad had taken the peerage, I would probably have been one of my sister's first consultation."

Lafiel now understood exactly what decision it was Mari had not wanted to force upon her children. Heirs to a peerage were required to provide for their own children the same genetic manipulation that Lafiel had received in order to inherit the title. They would have extended lifespans, the distinctive blue hair, the Froth sense organ and other enhancements optimizing them for life in space. They would be Abh, and so would any of their descendants.

Emboldened by Thom's frankness, Lafiel indulged her curiosity. "You had a very distinguished career in the Marines, you could have earned a title of your own."

"Maybe so." He grinned at his wife. "But I fell in love with an islander and she's not going anywhere so that's that."

"Maybe so," Beth said, drawing out the words in a clear skeptical counterpoint to his own. "But that didn't keep you from gallivanting across the galaxy for another twenty years now did it?"

Thom returned her grin. "I told you back then, you marry me you marry the Marines."

"It's _you _what married the Marines, honey," she said, looking down her pointed finger. "A soldier's wife is just an occasional mistress, thank you very much send a picture when this one's born."

"Beth, not in front of the kids." That got a laugh from everyone at what appeared to be an old joke. Lafiel just smiled.

Beth's dark eyes settled on Lafiel."Well, we managed to raise three sensible kids and a grand-kid on the way so this reprobate wasn't such a bad investment for me."

"So there you have it," Thom said, smiling at Lafiel. "We kicked the can down to the next generation, if they make it big they'll have to make the same choices all over again."

"It looks like two of my kids plan on keeping their feet on solid ground," Beth said. She patted Geith's arm. "But this one's taking after Thom and his dad, wants to get back into his grandpa's business. I've at least managed to convince him to wait until this war is done."

Lafiel did not feel this was the time to be advising on business or career decisions, so she kept her comments general. "I can certainly understand your concern. There are a lot of opportunities now supporting the war effort and in development of the new territories, but it is also a rather volatile environment. Developing more skills and experience right here also has merit." She smiled at Chisha. "And of course you have a family to consider now."

"If Geith does plan on getting into grandpa's old business, I'll be going with him. Studying with Mari has given me some credentials."

They did end up talking a bit about their plans. Geith had ideas for setting up ecosystems for habitats that could be both self-sufficient and aesthetic even on smaller scales. Chisha was looking at ways of sculpting with materials that could actually work as structural support. It sounded like they planned on doing this even while raising one or more children. Lafiel was seeing something that she only got hints of in dealing with landers, the need to try and get so many things done so quickly. The raising of families was something in particular that seemed to take on a sense of urgency. Abh could live well over two hundred years and could potentially have children at any time within that long span. Landers who opted for natural childbirth did not always have the option of waiting for the best time, sometimes the only time might be right now.

Isu had been fairly quiet, but eventually his work was mentioned. "I get the impression what you do bears little resemblance to tending a garden in the way that I would understand," Lafiel said.

"That's very true, My Lady," the big man said. He had changed out of his uniform for dinner and was in the shorts and colorful shirt that seemed to be the norm for me here. "For the most part we've let things grow as they will after the original seeding. A lot of the work is just monitoring the health of flora and fauna, checking for signs that any microorganism has mutated into something that's causing a problem. In terms of tending, we just need to keep the walker paths clear of felled trees and such. There's also selective harvesting of trees that are reaching the end of their lives, for use in woodwork It keeps us busy." He smiled. "That and rescue people who have broken a leg doing something they shouldn't have."

"So there are no large animals to contend with?"

"No, the idea was to make this a paradise for birds and that's exactly the way it's turned out. We imported a lot of species that would have their nests preyed on in most other environment, here they can flourish."

"So it would seem, the whole island appears to be awash in birds. I could hear them from the middle of the bay, it seemed as if for every one I saw there must be a hundred hidden in the trees."

"They're only noisy during the day. They quiet down at night, so you'll be able to sleep in peace."

That puzzled Lafiel. "Do you not live according to universal time?" On most planets people lived according to the 24 hour cycle based on the rotation rate of Old Earth regardless of the length of day on the local world. Changing the rotation rate of a planet was impractical and the circadian rhythm was hardwired into the human species.

"On the mainland they do, but not here. The rotation rate of Delktoe is a little over 27 hours, so most people are able to adapt quite well."

"Some better than others," Jinto said. "I eventually found the right combination of day and night pills that kept me from turning into a zombie."

"Abh generally have no problem adjusting," Isu said. "But just in case we've stocked your medicine cabinet with the recommended meds."

"Thank you. With all the birds this would be a paradise for my cats, I wonder if I should have brought them."

Isu smiled. "I doubt they would have appreciated that, My Lady. Do you remember immigration asking you if you are carrying any animals?"

"Yes, I recall."

"That's because we require any cats on the island to be sterilized. If any fertile cats went feral they'd run through here like a plague."

"Yes, I can see that. If we want to keep our cats from going somewhere we just close the hatch to their room. Clearly that's not an option here."

"Other than some flightless birds we have no other vertebrates on the island. Well, there is one exception. There's a large sinkhole in the middle of the island where we've fenced off a colony of illegal chimpanzee chimera that had been confiscated on Dreuhynu Gogam."

"Illegal chimera? I'm not sure I follow, the Empire has no law regulating genetic splicing."

"It was a local law against human-animal chimera. Most worlds have such a law, either that or professional restrictions enforced by the local school of genetic engineers. Some eccentric had incorporated human genes into chimpanzees in his private zoo. It seems he was hoping to give them power of speech."

"Did he succeed?"

"To some degree. After he was arrested the animals were slated for euthanasia, but a lot of people didn't like that idea. Long story short, they eventually ended up being settled here. My girlfriend Sybila is a zoologist who has been studying them, in fact she's out there now. We could take you out there some time if you like."

"I think that would be interesting. I've heard of people incorporating animal genes into their children but never the reverse."

"People do that?" Beth asked. "Sounds a bit dodgy, any cat people walking about?"

"You're looking at one," Jinto quipped. "Isn't that right, Lafiel?"

That got some blank stares and worried looks. Lafiel had an inspiration. She sighed. "Well, I guess it can't be helped now. When I was seven years old I asked my father who my other gene donor was. He told me it was our cat Horia." Without another word she pulled off her head scarf and exposed her pointed ears.

Reactions were various. Beth put a hand to her face and murmured "Bless me..." Her kids looked very awkward, as if unsure how they were supposed to take this. Knowing smiles from Mari and Thom showed they were already on to her.

Lafiel smiled. "Of course it was a lie, all Abriel have pointed ears and it has nothing to do with cat genes."

"Well, that sets my mind at ease, it surely does," Beth said, looking very relieved.

"Your father does sound like a character, My Lady," Thom said. "It's too bad we didn't invite him too."

"I am very proud of my father, but to be quite honest he is the last person I would want with me on my furlough. Even if he were available, I am happy to report he is not somebody whom I would expect to ever get his feet dirty, if you'll pardon the expression."

Lafiel suspected they might be reluctant to ask an Abriel about her family, so she volunteered what she thought was appropriate. Her father was an Admiral in the fleet and her brother was serving as a Vanguard Flyer on a battleship. She did not mind talking about her family, but was not particularly eager to do so either. Her father had always been a source of great irritation in her life, and the fact that they had only met briefly and infrequently for years now was a great relief to her. Her brother Duhiiru had similarly been out of touch for years, other than the occasional letter. They had grown up together, but Lafiel never had developed much of a relationship with him. She had been quite happy to leave the family estate and start her career in the Space Force as quickly as she could.

"My mother Lexshue is no longer with us," Lafiel concluded. She used the term even though technically it did not apply, because Lexshue did not raise her she was not Lafiels' mother, she was Lafiel's gene-donor. "She is now one of our honored dead." Thom offered a traditional Abh toast to war heroes and everybody joined in, something Lafiel appreciated very much.

"And here's hoping you can bring a swift end to the war and go on to what you would really like to do," Thom added.

"I have had little opportunity to think about what I would like to do after the war," Lafiel confessed. "One dream I have had is to terraform the planet in my territory. The Paryun system does have a planet that would probably be suitable. If I could make a place there half as beautiful as this one I would be happy."

"Jinto warned us you don't think small," Geith said.

"The name means Land of Roses," Lafiel said. "I have always thought it would be nice to really cover the land in roses."

"Why stop there?" Geith asked. "Seed it with nothing but plants that have red blossoms or red leaves. Wouldn't that be a sight."

"There are plenty of animals with red fur," Isu said. "If you want more, modding for hair color is pretty simple. You could have red deer and wolves if you wanted."

"And red fish," Emery said. "In fact, it wouldn't be hard to turn the ocean red, with the right mineral nutrients you could have a sustained algae colony right across the globe."

"You would want the soil to be red too," Chisha said. "With enough iron you could do it."

"So how are you planning on making the clouds red?" Thom asked.

That led to a succession of increasingly outlandish ideas for making absolutely everything on Lafiel's new world the color red. As they had been talking, one course after another of the dinner had been wheeled in by the maid robot and passed around. It had all clearly been prepared ahead of time by hand, and was absolutely delicious. The drinks also flowed freely. The talk became less focused but more free ranging. They spoke of everything from their neighbor's bad hair dye job to the fate of Life after the last star burned out. Before Lafiel knew it, the only light was that provided by the ceiling lamps. The sun had set long ago.

That night, Lafiel slept more soundly than she had since the war had started.

# # # #

Jinto and Geith sat on the swim platform that extended off the stern of the cruiser, their dive masks up, scanning the water. Before long, they saw Emery break the surface not far away. She swam over to them, her flippers slapping the water. She grabbed onto the platform between them and took the snorkel out of her mouth, keeping the dive mask on. She shook her head. "I lost her again." She spoke in nasal wheezes between great gulps of air. "She spotted _something _and went off like a bat out of hell. Couldn't keep up, had to surface."

"Just how long can she stay down there before we need to worry?" Geith asked.

Jinto smiled awkwardly. "That's probably classified information." He could tell them that she had conducted an entire sabotage mission in hard vacuum with no breathing gear, except that definitely was classified information. "She has some crazy red blood cell count, I know that much. Oh, I see her." He pointed.

Emery pulled herself up onto the platform and looked. "Did she really get all the way out there without surfacing?"

"We've been watching," Geith assured her.

Jinto waved at her. She waved back and promptly disappeared again.

"I hope she's coming back," Emery said.

"She will," Jinto said. They had explained to Lafiel that if she got separated from Emery she should go straight back to the boat. "That's what you told her to do, that's what she'll do."

"I also told her to stick with her diving buddy," Emery said.

"She just got distracted, she's like a kitten that way."

"You sure she doesn't have any cat genes?" Geith asked.

"Not that she'll admit to."

Lafiel rocketed out of the water, and in one motion was sitting beside Jinto on the platform. She took out her snorkel, lifted up her diving mask and without preamble presented what was in her other hand. "Jinto, what's this?"

She had a very odd, colorful fish by the tail, it was wriggling like mad. "Um... not sure."

"It's a Ferguson Rainbow Fish," Emery said. "Modded from something on Old Earth a long time ago for aquariums. Is that what you were chasing?"

"Yes. Is it good to eat?"

Emery laughed. "Not particularly, no."

Lafiel let it go. "They're fast, it nearly got away." She looked at Emery. "I'm sorry, I thought you were following me. My Froth doesn't work very well underwater, I can't really tell what's behind me."

"I was following you until I had to surface for air."

Lafiel smiled. "You will forgive me. I will be more careful from now on."

"No worries."

"Can we go down again?"

"Go ahead, I'll be right behind you."

Lafiel donned her mask and snorkel and sank beneath the waves again. Emery shook her head. "That's it, tomorrow I'm getting her started on the aqualung. That way we'll be able to keep up with her."

Jinto just smiled. _I wouldn't be so sure of that._

End Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

**Furlough**

**A Banner of the Stars Story**

Chapter 3 – Hybrids

The underwater cave was different from what Jinto remembered. The cave itself was the same as it had been, probably since millions of years ago. But he had remembered darkness punched with narrow beams of the head and arm mounted lights on their wetsuits. Now there were fixed floodlights set up throughout the cave, illuminating it in a way he had never seen. For the first time he could really appreciate the sheer size of it. Milky stalactites, stalagmites and columns that far predated even the long past flooding of the cave pierced the crystal clear water, forming a chaotic cathedral that went off into the distance. As they had been told, each light also marked the location of extra air tanks for emergencies. It all made the place a lot less scary than the first time he had been here all those years ago.

Lafiel was obviously having fun, her body language was clear as day. She led the way, looking and swimming everywhere, playfully swimming all around one column then another. She had learned to pace herself now, so the rest of them were having no trouble keeping up and she was in no danger of bumping into anything. Geith and Emery were shadowing them, making sure they didn't get into trouble and leading them along when needed. Despite the new infrastructure this was still considered a hazardous diving area, so there always had to be one certified cave diving instructor accompanying every diver.

Geith gave hand signals to follow him and he led them to an area where they had to use their own lights. This was more like the environment Jinto remembered, inky blackness, lights illuminating little patches of rock, and air bubbles disappearing up into nowhere. A little further on Geith shone his arm spotlight straight up. Jinto could see a tunnel leading up. He signaled for Jinto and Lafiel to go that way. Jinto came close to Geith, gave thumbs-up and winked. _I remember this place. _He led the way, and Lafiel followed closely beside him. Before long, their lights illuminated the surface of the water at the top of the tunnel. Just before they reached the surface, Jinto killed his arm mounted light and set his mask light to its dim setting, then pointed to Lafiel. She got the idea and did the same. Jinto came to the surface and took the breather out of his mouth. Lafiel followed and did likewise. "What is this place, Jinto? Aren't Geith and Emery coming?"

"They'll wait for us, we won't be long. Kill your light and float on your back, okay?"

"Okay." They both clicked off their remaining light, plunging the cave into darkness. There was just the gentle sound of the water lapping at them as they both lay on their backs in the water. Before Jinto's eyes could adjust enough to see anything Lafiel was already asking "What are those lights?"

"Glow worms."

Jinto was sure the colony had expanded since he first was brought here years ago. The ceiling was fairly bursting with the little white dots of light. He knew from seeing the cave under light it was just a few meters overhead, but distance was impossible to judge here. They could have been right in front of his nose or they could have been distant stars. He found Lafiel's hand and began to very gently kick. She did likewise. They moved slowly across the surface of the water. The star field was revealed in its true three-dimensional shapes as they passed across the undulations of the irregular cave ceiling.

When they came to the end of the cave, they just lay there for a minute, hand in hand. "Many people must have been here already," Lafiel said softly. "But it still feels like discovery. It feels like what we were meant to be doing."

"I've never been much good at making things, so I've always preferred finding things."

"One day we should try to go find a new planet together, one that nobody has ever seen."

"Would you name it after me?" Jinto asked.

"Planetary surveyors naming planets after themselves is frowned upon."

"Maybe we could name it after my cat."

"Idiot, aren't you getting ahead of yourself? Anyway, a cat should have something more modest named after it, like some part of a planet."

"Every part of Delktou was named during the terraforming."

"Including every light in this cave?"

"These don't last long, they're always changing. I could name one after you, but it might not be here tomorrow."

"Then we'll have to wait until we can find our own planet before we can start naming things." After a moment of quiet, Lafiel squeezed his hand. "Jinto, I think you should go on that trip with Geith."

"We don't have to go, it's just something we were talking about."

"I know you want to go. It will be perfect, Thom wants to take me out to where Isu's girlfriend is studying the chimp hybrids. If you and Geith don't dawdle, you'll be back more or less the same time that we are. It would also give Emery a chance to spend some time with her girlfriend, I'm sure she'd appreciate that."

"We have been keeping Geith and her busy for quite a while now." He really did want to relive their trip around the island. For that duration the small sailboat was only really comfortable for two. At least one had to be an experienced sailor, so if Lafiel wanted to do the same it would most likely be with Emery. "It'll give you a chance to swap war stories with Thom. Be sure to ask him about the Lick."

"The Lick?"

"That's what they called Vellicton when he was stationed there. He had to do some really crazy stuff, and there are probably more things he couldn't tell me when I was a civilian."

"Then we're decided. I think we've left our friends waiting long enough now, don't you?"

# # # #

Thom smiled in response to Lafiel's question. "Because, My Lady, if we don't catch one then tonight's dinner is going to be a vegetarian special."

Lafiel had never seen anyone eat a vegetarian meal here, so she assumed that was not regarded as an acceptable option. "I know the hens are flightless, but from what I have seen they are very fast on their feet. We have no weapons, so I presume you mean to set a trap."

"Just so."

At the end of their first day in the jungle, dinner had been prepared from what Thom had in his backpack. Today, as they walked he had been gathering a variety of fruits, plants and roots. She had been wondering if there was a lake to fish in, like she had fished for her dinner on Hania. But just now she had found out he had a different sort of game animal in mind.

Yesterday he had constantly been encouraging her to think about what they needed to do, with leading questions like how she suggested they climb this rock face without breaking their necks. By now she did not need any prompting. "The ones we've seen have kept their distance, so either we will need to fashion a trap that attracts them and is tripped automatically, or we will need to conceal ourselves. By myself I would take the second option since it would likely take me too long to design a trap that actually works."

"A good assessment. As it happens, I know of a perfect place to lay a trap just a little further ahead."

They continued to walk. Now that they were up on the plateau there was less time spent ascending against the gravity field, something that came as a relief to Lafiel. The gravity was twice what she was used to, fighting against it for the better part of a day had been exhausting. Her own backpack was a good deal more modest than Thom's, and most of the weight was the water she carried. She had been surprised by that, but no longer. Straining against the gravity in this heat, she had been compelled to consume a shocking amount of liquid. They had replenished their bottles at springs more than once.

The shed they had spent the night in had been very modest, and the bathing facility had consisted of a little tub barely big enough for her to fit in. But that bath had been the most invigorating one she had ever had in her life. Before it she had felt numb, after she had felt she could climb one of the volcanic plugs to the top and back. The rough accommodation had not bothered her much, she had slept like the dead.

Today's walking had been along more even ground, and less exhausting, so Lafiel had more of a chance to evaluate what she was seeing around her. Before long, she came to one inescapable conclusion.

This was no garden, it was a battlefield.

Life and death were being traded in abundance all around her. For the plants, the evidence was frozen in time everywhere. The landscape was scattered with their remains in various stages of decomposition. Most obvious were the strangler vines that would surround and attack trees in a long campaign lasting years, too slow to see but no less merciless for that. Here and there they would come across a strangler that stood by itself, surrounding empty air, the tree it had killed long since rotted away.

The birds were no less engaged in the savage struggle. The living were in lavish abundance, but the dead were found here and there, at least the ones that had not yet been devoured utterly as everything needs must be in this place. What to her eyes had appeared their play she was now coming to understand as all part of a no-holds-barred struggle for food and territory and mates and dominance. This was truly a war where no quarter was asked or given.

For the most part Lafiel could let the war of flora and fauna fade into the background and appreciate the stark beauty to be found in the roiling chaos. When tramping through jungle with the green canopy obscuring all above and around, it was possible to imagine that this jungle went on forever. Then they would emerge into a clearing or clamber up a rock outcrop that the trees had not managed to find a purchase on, and she could mark their progress across the landscape stretching between those great rock pillars that seemed to be holding up the clouds they disappeared into.

Thom brought them into a particularly thick clump of underbrush. Where needed he cleared a path with quick strokes of his machete. Lafiel had long since past wondering why they had departed dressed head to foot in sturdy cloth. It was stifling but without it they would have been covered in cuts and scrapes. Soon the bush got impossibly thick. Thom dropped to the ground and started crawling. Without a word, Lafiel did likewise. She found progress was actually easier this way. Before long, the undergrowth thinned out a bit and became a little opening just big enough for them both to lie in, still concealed all around by a tangle of leaves. Through the leaves in front she could just see that the ground fell away steeply, and at the bottom of what she took to be a modest cliff perhaps a meter or so high there was a small open clearing where the ground was covered with nothing but the ubiquitous brown carpet of decaying plant matter.

Thom reached into one of the many pockets covering his trousers and pulled out some big seeds. He threw them out onto the clearing below them. "That's the lure."

"Will they really come? If we can see them, can't they see us?"

"These hens didn't have any natural predators that attacked from above, so they never bother looking up."

"What do we do when one comes?"

"You figure you could just jump down there and grab it?"

"Probably."

"Okay, then that's the plan. Could be a while, so get comfortable. No really loud noises, minimum movement."

"Understood." Low voices certainly were not going to penetrate the ever present cacophony of bird-calls. Lafiel rested her chin on her crossed arms. "I confess I could do with a rest."

"I thought as much. You've really persevered, and with no complaint."

"I have no grounds for complaint. You told me this would test my endurance, and it has, but your pacing has been measured. Food and rest came exactly when I needed them."

"Out here, every meal is a feast, every bath an anointment and every bed a blessing."

Lafiel smiled. "Indeed." Now that she felt more comfortable in her new surroundings and more confident about what to expect, she no longer felt the need to focus so fiercely on what was right in front of her. She just let the back of her mind stay aware. "Did you often have to survive like this in the field?"

"No, the Marines gave us three squares a day from proper field kitchens. That is, as long as we didn't get cut off."

"Did that ever happen?"

"Only once when it was long enough to really matter."

"Is that what happened at Vellicton?"

Thom chuckled, a low rumble barely heard. "Jinto been telling you stories about the Lick?"

"Nothing specific, he just suggested I ask you about it."

"I'm surprised, that boy usually loves telling other people's stories like they were his own."

"I am all too acquainted with that habit of his, but I seem to have succeeded in teaching him at least some restraint. My knowledge of Vellicton is limited, I recall there was some instability there fifteen years ago and we had to send a garrison. I presume that is when you served there?"

"Yeah, that was some messed-up business. Quite a baptism for a young buck all proud of being freshly promoted to Deca-Commander and doing his own investigations for the first time."

"I'm afraid I have a lamentable lack of knowledge on our ground forces, and know even less about what counter-insurgency involves."

Thom's eyes sparkled impishly when their eyes briefly met, and they resumed their dinner vigil. "You know we exist, that's more than most Space Force officers can say. My sort of work mostly involves wandering around and talking, lots and lots of talking. Languages was just about all I was any good at in school, everything else bored me. I learned classic English and found that I liked pre-Diaspora literature even more. By the time I came of age and joined the forces I had the equivalent of Classics and Linguistics degrees."

"That sounds like an unusual avenue for joining the Forces."

"I took the usual Space Force cadet track, but in the second year it was suggested my background might be more useful in the Marines and I agreed. Mom and dad were already upset about my career choice, but now they were livid."

It surprised Lafiel to hear that. "Your mother is clearly proud of you now."

"That took years. At the time I really didn't care, I just got caught up in the work. You'd be surprised how similar a lot of local languages are once you have a solid background in their root languages. A lot of times I could be speaking the lingo just a few weeks after I got there. When you walk up to somebody and talk to him in his own language, that by itself gives you a lot of street credentials."

"Were you interrogating prisoners?"

"Sometimes, but mostly not. When an Admiral points to a Gate on his chart and says 'put a garrison there', that order gets percolated down to our units as 'find out who is making trouble for the territorial government'. Like I said, that involves a lot of wandering around talking to people. Whatever their tactics, insurgents are basically a conspiracy to overthrow or undermine the government. Ferreting them out is a process of finding out who is part of the conspiracy."

"That is properly a task of the territorial government."

"Yes, it is. When they are showing little desire or progress, that raises a red flag, and that's when we get sent in. The Lick looked like a pretty classic case when we arrived. There was endemic corruption in the territorial government, the Count had to fire three territorial representatives in one year. Lots of people were upset. Protests turned into riots, then bombings and assassinations. Nothing directed at Imperial citizens mind you, but we figured it was just a matter of time because we were perceived as shoring up a corrupt regime."

Lafiel understood the dilemma. "We can take no direct action against a local government that remains loyal."

"They were certainly loyal, we had complete cooperation from the planetary authority and they knew what they were doing. Early on signal intelligence caught a break and intercepted a suspicious transmission from a police commissioner in the capital. He broke under interrogation, and suddenly we had information on what looked like their whole organization. We split up and flew all around the planet, liaising with local police and rounding up people like nobody's business. By the time we started thinking this was too good to be true, we had already been set up. Cells we didn't even know about attacked all our field bases at the same time. A lot of them had infiltrated the local police."

"That's insane, we've sterilized planets for less."

"Too right. If a Marine battalion got decimated, the Empire couldn't ignore that. They got the idea in their heads that the Empire's response would be a regime change, just what they wanted, but we all knew it would be a lot more nasty. To make sure it didn't come to that, our immediate job was to stay alive long enough for relief to arrive. In my case, that meant abandoning an untenable position and running straight into the jungle with my unit. I figured they wouldn't be expecting that, and I was right."

"Would the enemy not know the local terrain better than you?"

Thom grinned. "An excellent point, My Lady. I see it's only taken you a day to grasp the importance of knowing the lay of the land. The surveys we do when a planet becomes part of the Empire are not just for economic evaluation, we probably had better maps than they did. We spread out and laid down sensors as we went, anywhere they were likely to come at us from. And it didn't take long to come. Any time we detected pursuit, we used the railgun mortar to lob a polonium aerosol. Very nasty stuff, by the time we used all of it they had given up chasing us. That's when we went back to the village."

"You went back to their stronghold?" Lafiel asked in disbelief.

"I was young and angry. But thankfully not stupid any more. We infiltrated the mayor's house at night."

"Why the mayor?"

"He had known too much, told us exactly where and when we could find people. It just smelled wrong. We kidnapped him, dragged him through the jungle for a day, then hung him by his feet and started asking questions. It took just enough persuasion to sound like the truth, so I used a drone to transmit a nice little video testimony fingering all the insurgents in the region. Some of them were actually still alive. By then we had a fleet in orbit and I got airlifted out. The government was suddenly more enthusiastic about rounding up suspects."

"You must have been glad to leave that place."

Thom's smile was indulgent. "We were there for another year and a half, My Lady."

"A year and a half? But it sounds like you had already crushed the insurgents."

"We had, but they were just a symptom of a larger problem. It took that long for a viable planetary authority to form. It's difficult for us to deal with a territorial government when there really isn't one to begin with." He smiled. "I believe you had some experience with that on Lobnas."

"Yes, I certainly did." When she had arrived at the prison planet they had just captured from the United Mankind, there had been four groups claiming authority over the whole planet. The situation had quickly degenerated into chaos, one that nearly got Jinto killed. It was one of her most bitter memories.

"In the meantime we had to make sure things did not degenerate to the point where the Admiral decided to start dropping nukes. We walked out of there with a hundred fewer men than we arrived with."

"You paid a high price to keep the peace."

"It would have been a lot higher if we hadn't done our job."

"My enemies usually show up as symbols on a radar screen. But on Sugufnof I had people hunting me down and shooting at me, that was a very different experience."

"Jinto told us a bit about that in his letters. Come to think of it, I always wondered how he got you past checkpoints when you couldn't speak the local language."

"He really never told you about that? He told the police the reason I couldn't talk was that I was a doll."

"Get out."

Lafiel ended up relating the story of when she had to sit perfectly still in the passenger seat of a convertible while Jinto explained to the officers at the checkpoint that he liked driving around with a full-sized doll sitting next to him. Miraculously, they had bought it. It was Lafiel's first time on a planet so she had been depending on Jinto to keep them safe. She was gratified to find that Thom agreed about all the things she thought he did wrong, especially checking them into a hotel when they were supposed to be in hiding. She was explaining how he mishandled the standoff with the United Mankind officer when Thom raised his hand for silence and pointed. Lafiel peered through the leaves and saw something emerge into the clearing. She had almost forgotten they were waiting for a bird to show up. Sure enough, one of the hens with their grey and brown mottled feathers walked tentatively towards them. It was ever attentive in a way utterly different from the domestic animals Lafiel was familiar with. She reminded herself that for the birds this was a battlefield.

The hen made its way to where Thom had scattered their lure and started pecking. Very slowly, Lafiel got into a crouching position. This struck her as being a very crude form of hunting, but it was what she said she was going to do. She had been doing enough jumping across rough terrain now that judging flight through the heavy gravity field was more natural now. With a thrust of her legs she exploded through the foliage and out over her prey. It reacted with astonishing speed, breaking left with its stubby legs pumping. Lafiel reached out, landed and went into a tuck and roll. When she shot to her feet she was wringing the neck of a madly flailing bird held in her gloved hand at arm's length.

Thom dropped his heavy backpack down onto the clearing and hopped down to join her. "Well done, My Lady," he said brightly. "I doubt I could have done that."

It was all Lafiel could do to keep hold of this feathered bundle of outrage. "How do we kill it?" she asked, annoyed at herself for not having inquired ahead of time.

"Just break its neck."

"I've been trying!" Lafiel protested, continuing to squeeze as hard as she could.

Thom twirled his hand over his head. "Give her a good crank, that'll do it."

It did. When the deed was done, Thom tied their kill to the back of Lafiel's backpack, saying that was according to the "you kill it you carry it" rule. As it happened the next shed was not far. Preparing the bird to eat was a good deal more involved than scaling a fish on Hania had been, feathers stuck to the animal much more stubbornly than scales. They cooked a stew in the same clever little collapsible pot Thom had used yesterday. Lafiel was famished, so she accepted a bowlful and tucked into it with relish. As they ate, she decided to ask. "Thom, that is not really how you would normally hunt hen, is it?"

His grin told the story. "I hope you'll forgive the one indulgence I've allowed myself. In my defense, I have three excuses."

"Three excuses?"

"Yes. First, I've heard about the great dexterity of the Abh, I really wanted to see it put to the test."

Lafiel was somewhat annoyed. "I hope I was able to satisfy your curiosity."

"You did, and once again I beg your pardon. My other excuse is that years from now I really want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I got an Abriel to catch a chicken with her bare hand."

Lafiel sniffed. "That is far from the strangest story that can be told about me. I shall now hear your third excuse."

"I wanted to offer you a demonstration that you can survive anywhere with just your wits and your hands."

"Then I will thank you for the lesson and forgive your indulgence. Perhaps you will grant me an indulgence in return."

"Of course, My Lady, anything."

"You strike me as somebody who has at least three reasons for everything he does."

Thom chuckled. "I prefer to say the mind is your greatest weapon, but I like the sound of that too."

"I am curious, what were your three reasons for turning down a peerage and settling here?"

"Geith, Emery and Isu."

Lafiel smirked. "I feel like I have been outmaneuvered."

"For every question there is an answer that's short, correct and trivial. The non-trivial answers are many. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that in the Empire those who bear the highest rank are offered the fewest choices."

"That is very true. As an Abriel, in time of war I am forbidden from leaving the service or from refusing promotion. As a Baron your own choices would not have been so restricted. I understand you did not want to saddle your children with a fate they had not chosen, but I can't help feel there was more to it than that."

Thom's face was expressionless for a moment, Lafiel had the impression he was carefully considering how much to say. Then his look softened. "The fact is, I had been hedging my bets right up to when I came back home and met Jinto for the first time during his last summer here."

Lafiel was puzzled. "Jinto had something to do with your decision?"

"After a fashion. I'll let you in on a little secret, even though mom made me promise not to. The fact is, from the start we knew all about his background, who he really was. The grownups anyway, we didn't tell the kids. When Jinto finally spilled the beans, their surprise was genuine. But just think of what I saw when I watched Jinto. This kid had been living with his family on an isolated planet that was basically their whole universe, and now here he was light-years away in some place he'd never heard of, learning a language he'd never spoken before and getting ready to be a titled lord in an Empire he knew practically nothing about. I had to admire the way he was holding up, but I've learned how to spot fear in a man. This boy hid it well, but he was scared and bewildered. Then not even a day after leaving the planet he's running from the opening battle in the mother of all wars. He must have felt like a ball on a billiards table."

Lafiel nodded. "That is a metaphor which I have heard him use more than once to describe his role in life."

"From what I've seen he's bounced back well enough, and I'm happy for him. But thinking about what happened to him made me realize something. Living in the periphery, being below the radar, that at least gives you the option of when to venture out and in what way. My generation of the family did so, and I have few regrets about the work I did. I hope all my kids will spend at least some time exploring the wider world out there. But if they do I want it to be their choice, not their duty."

Lafiel regarded him closely. "It sounds like this decision was just as hard for you as it was for your mother and father."

"Of course. Just think of what I might have robbed my children of making this decision. They could have shaped the destiny of entire worlds, just as I did for a time. They could have commanded great enterprises, or fleets, or armies, or literally built worlds of their own." He smiled. "In the Marines we were always going on about service to the Empire, but whatever anyone tells you there's nothing like holding the reins. They could have done all that."

"They still could."

"Yes, but there's no denying children of peers get a head start when they're handing out promotions in the forces or in the commercial enterprises. And the biggest handicap my kids have is, they won't be Abh. If nothing else, that would have bought them another century or more of life and youth. Considering that has caused me more than a few sleepless nights."

Lafiel was silent for a moment. "For all that, I sense no regret."

"The thing that finally decided me was the desire to shun irreversible decisions. Ultimately, the road to becoming an Abh is one-way, there's no going back."

"Even peers can choose to resign their positions, if they're willing to relinquish all the accompanying privileges."

"Do you know a single one who you think was even tempted?"

Lafiel had to pause and consider. On the day Jinto signed the papers that would forever exile him from his home world, his foster parents had begged him to defect and relinquish his title. He could have done it too, it would have been as simple as stepping into the space elevator car and pressing down instead of up. Watching that, Lafiel had been holding her breath. Was it just her own fear, or had he really been considering it?

The answer came quickly. "No, I don't."

"The Empire is like the proverbial resort hotel, you can check out any time you like but you can't ever leave."

"Cultural reference." They both smiled. Her running joke with Jinto had been doing its round in the Karmau family since her arrival.

"Classic English opens up a lot of strange and wondrous worlds when you're surfing the archives. If you prefer, imagine the Empire is sort of like the bastard hybrid of two and three dimensional space we travel through. The difference is, the Gates are strictly one way."

"I guess by that analogy I would be from Plane Space. And yet here I am."

"But you're here just long enough to see, like Hawkings radiation on the surface of the Gate, here for a moment and then back across the event horizon an instant later."

Despite the flippancy of the over-extended metaphor, Lafiel was brought to a realization. "You didn't want the Empire to take your children from you."

Once more there was the moment of expressionless silence, as if Thom was again considering how much to say. Jinto called it a poker face, whatever that meant. Thom spoke softly but intently. "I actually had a very good relationship with my sister before she left us behind. She and I had a lot in common, and we still write each other regularly. Aimi talks a lot about her practice. She has plenty of second-generation peers visiting her clinic, lander parents and Abh children coming to consult on genetic options for their next generation. She sees it all the time, the distance that separates them. However rich and sincere there love, there's that gap they just can't close."

Lafiel nodded. "I have seen that myself. A very good friend of mine is a first-generation Abh. She had a brother who could not even bear to set eyes on his father. The desire to become Abh had consumed him and had set up an unbridgeable gap between him and his father."

"I think it is something more fundamental than a generation gap. Long ago I came to the conclusion that the Abh are Kin of the Stars first, servants of the Empire second and family third."

"I'm not sure I agree. We consider parenting to be one of the three great tasks of every Abh."

"I don't doubt that. But let me ask you this, does the Space Force have any rules about fraternization within the ranks?"

"No, why would we?"

"Nepotism and favoritism is not something the Abh spend a lot of time worrying about, but it is one of the greatest problems we encounter in lander organizations."

"I have heard the same. For my part, if a family member were my subordinate in the Space Force I would treat them no differently than anyone else. You already know I had to leave Jinto for dead once, and he is like family to me. It was agonizing, but I did not hesitate. Are you saying you would do differently?"

"I would never want to find out. I have also had to send men to an almost certain death, and it tears me up to this day. Could I do the same if it were one of my children? I doubt it. I could not help but play favorites with them. We have a weakness that you don't, we could forgive our children anything."

Lafiel thought long and hard about what Thom was saying. He continued eating. That was one thing Lafiel had noticed about the Kamrau family, and Thom in particular. If you needed time to think, they gave it to you.

"You are right about one thing, I am first and foremost Kin to the Stars. I could never love anyone who had betrayed the pride of the Abh or the Empire, no matter who they are. But I trust my family never to do that."

"And if they did?" Thom asked frankly.

"I suppose I would feel abandoned. And that they deserved to be abandoned by me in turn. I could not love anyone who betrayed my trust in that way."

Thom smiled. "Love is not love which alters when alteration finds."

Lafiel frowned. "Your inverted syntax suggests you are quoting or translating poetry."

"Yes, My Lady. Very, very old poetry."

"It implies true love is unconditional. That strikes me as granting unbridled license."

"I have felt many things towards family. Anger, envy, resentment, disappointment, frustration. But the love is constant."

"You think it is different for us?"

Thom smiled sadly. "I can't help thinking so. Maybe that is my conceit, or my fear."

"Perhaps that is one price we must pay for the Empire to function as it does."

"But do you even regard it as a price?"

Lafiel was taken aback by the question. "I would say no." She smiled. "Maybe that is my conceit, or my ignorance. Ask somebody less conceited or ignorant."

Thom laughed. "If I find one I'll let you know what they tell me."

For the remaining time until daylight faded, they retreated to the more comfortable territory of trading more war stories. Lafiel's sleep was somewhat more troubled that night. She supposed it must be because she was not quite as profoundly exhausted as she had been yesterday.

# # # #

Sunset was the designated starting time for the open bottle party. By the time Jinto and Geith climbed up from the pier to the sinkhole pools there were plenty of people wandering around. Like the two of them, most were in swimwear and had the traditional wineskin full of their favorite poison hanging on a shoulder strap. The trees were full of the dim lamps that had been collecting energy all day, and more had been thrown into the pools, bathing the area in a shimmering dim twilight. It was already getting noisy, and many of the pools had people cavorting and splashing in them.

_This really takes me back. _It was like being at the same party they were when he and Geith had passed through here on their previous trip around the island. Back then they had just been two kids who really shouldn't be here, but they came anyway. Mostly they had just got into conversations with tourists, but at some point they had joined into an impromptu diving contest at one of the largest natural pools. As he recalled, Jinto had been voted most likely to improve.

Their trip around the island was one of the few times Jinto had been exposed to the world outside the Imperial enclaves. People here spoke a dialect of Delktoe which was similar enough to what he learned on the mainland that Jinto had little difficulty with it. Hearing and speaking it again was very nostalgic.

"It's nice not to feel like a kid or a criminal this time," Jinto said.

"Yes, but being far from the Bay is not really an advantage now."

"Right." Back then they had been hoping not to meet anyone they knew, and who could report back that they had crashed a bottle party. Now that didn't matter, it just meant they were less likely to run into anyone Geith knew. But that was fine, Jinto was content just wandering and remembering. "So did your folks ever find out about that?"

"No, and not any of the other things they didn't catch us doing. When I came of age there was an implied don't ask don't tell policy."

"Sounds like a good policy. Want to go to the big pool?"

"What, and embarrass ourselves diving again?"

"Actually, it sounds like there's a band."

"Nothing scheduled, probably just.. oh, hang on." Geith looked at his wristband, which had just chimed. He grinned. "Hey, you remember Siri?"

"Sure, doesn't she live near the bay any more?"

"She's working in the Village now but I've still got her on my contact list. Looks like she's here." He tapped his band, and it chimed as a transmission was made. "Come on, this way."

Jinto followed quietly, feeling a bit awkward. Geith's question had been rhetorical, Siri had been one of Geith and Emery's friends when Jinto was here on the immersion program. Jinto had really liked her, maybe a bit too much. _Hopefully__ she's forgotten about that... after all, she'd had even more to drink than me __that night__, __and it's been a long time now__._

"Geith! Looking good!" Jinto recognized her immediately as she came smiling and waving. The tightly curled black hair was longer, it framed the same round face with the mouth that was too wide but that could form such a dazzling smile. The two-piece swimsuit not covering much of her brown skin showed that she had filled out very, very nicely. She glanced at Jinto and the wide-eyed recognition came just a second later. "Jinto!" She literally jumped into his arms, nearly bowling him over, laughing happily. She stepped back just enough to look into his face. "Is it really you?"

Jinto grinned. "Hi Siri, it's great to see you." And it was, but he had not expected such an enthusiastic reception.

Siri turned to face Geith, her arm still locked tightly around Jinto's neck. "Geith, you slacker, why didn't you tell me this bad boy was back on the island?"

Geith looked way too pleased with himself. "It's a state secret, now that you know we'll have to lock you up."

She kicked out at him playfully, but close enough to make him flinch back. "Take a hike!" She turned back to Jinto. "So what are you _doing _here hey?"

"Just here on vacation with a friend," Jinto said, wondering when Siri planned on letting go of him. "I'm surprised you remembered me."

She hit him lightly. "Hell yeah I remember! Day after you left Geith comes all high and mighty and tells me the boy I made out with at his party was a Count with his own planet. So what, you got like ten blue-haired wives now hey?"

Jinto laughed. "No, not even one."

"So it's just you and Geith out here?"

"Right, my friend is out on a tramp. Geith and I are doing the island circuit again."

"Good on you! Hey, let's find a pool and soak a bit."

"Um, aren't you with anyone?"

"A couple of girls, I left them behind. Figured I'd be getting caught up with Geith from weeks back but even better I get caught up with you from years back hey? Come on." She pulled on his arm.

"Okay..." Jinto looked around to see that Geith had made a discreet exit. Either he had accepted her order to take a hike as literal or he didn't want to be the old married man cramping his friend's style. Suddenly Jinto felt like that anxious kid who didn't really belong here.

# # # #

"You got yourself all turned around, boy," Siri said from where she lay beside Jinto semi-submerged in the little pool. She put a gentle hand on his hair to tilt his head in the right direction and pointed up. "Galactic north is there, and the galactic core is there. Don't you people got to navigate by the stars?"

"Not with the naked eye we don't. I was always here in summer, I don't know these constellations as well."

"Mainland's got the same stars, smart guy."

"Our school had a strict curfew and I spent most of my time in cities, I don't think I ever saw the stars."

"That's mainland for you."

"Anyway, getting back to your question, Martine would be... I guess right behind that tree."

"Stupid tree."

"The Hyde system is too far away to see. You'd need a pretty good telescope." A telescope probably would be able to see it, starlight was pretty much the only light here. Siri had found them a pool off the edge of the lighted party area, the sounds of the people over there was barely a murmur.

"But you don't live there, hey?"

"No, in fact I'm not even allowed to go there now."

"That be pretty messed up. Geith's dad says the best friends he made was in the army. So I bet the navy is your family now, hey?"

Jinto was silent for a moment. That question could lead all sorts of places. Jinto really wanted to address the elephant in the pool first. He turned to face her. "Siri, I'm sorry, it wasn't anything that you did-"

She reached over and put a finger over his lips. He could barely see her regarding him, just two eyes reflecting starlight. "Geith says one thing straight, you beat yourself up over everything. I know what that faraway look means. Your friend more than a friend I bet."

Jinto sighed. She was being so understanding, but he felt awful. "It's complicated right now."

"It always be complicated, boy."

Jinto was unsure where to begin. "In the war, she had to do some really awful things. I think she's pretty much over it now, but it might take some more time."

"Well even after more time, you going to ask her to marry you?"

"Abh don't have marriage, not like we do."

"Not like we do? Hell, marriage is marriage, either you do or you don't."

"There are different customs-"

"Oh sure, there's this and there's that. On the island we say marry late, marry well, marry once."

"Sounds like good advice."

"You go somewhere else they maybe say something different. But the Abh, they got nothing to say about it at all."

Jinto knew all this, but having it put right in front of his face was scaring up old anxieties all over again. "I still don't get it, why Abh couples don't stay together after their kids have grown. Are they really so eager to get back to the business of running the Empire?"

"Maybe they just don't want to."

"None of them? But why?"

"I never met one but I know they got to be different from us. Maybe they really nice when they want to be. Hell, we all know they a lot nicer than those United Mankind shitheads. But they been around for like a thousand years and none of them ever wanted to ask another hey let's get married now and for good? They done something to themselves a long time ago, something they got no mind to change back."

"Or had it done to them." A long time ago Lafiel told him the Abh had started as a slave race, genetically designed to serve as the vanguard in their masters' conquest of space. It was not something they actively hid, but it was not something they talked about either.

"Maybe so. But I got to think what you want and what your Princess want be two different things."

Jinto smiled. "That's one thing I really appreciate here, the straight talk."

"That be the only kind of talk we got here, boy."

"All we've been doing is talking about my problems, it doesn't seem fair."

"Happy to say I got no problems worth talking about right now. You want to talk about something else, I bet you got plenty of dirt on this Princess you just itching to unload."

He did. Jinto got back to the boat well after sunrise. When Geith complained, Jinto pushed him into the water just on general principles. To make up for it, Jinto took care of breakfast. He had no regrets about coming here, but it was good to get out onto the water again. Things were always so much simpler out on the water.

# # # #

Isu was waiting for them right where he said he would be. The shelter here was a good deal more elaborate than the sheds where Lafiel and Thom had spent the last two nights, it had power and climate control and a stocked kitchen. This was a work shelter after all, used by those who were monitoring the hybrid chimps and maintaining their enclosure.

They sat down to lunch at a small table, which in itself was a luxury Lafiel now appreciated a bit more. "Sybila's in the enclosure," Isu explained. "She's been there for three days, in fact."

"Are we interrupting some work of hers?" Lafiel asked. She knew that Isu's girlfriend had primary responsibility for monitoring and care of the hybrids.

"There's something happening she doesn't want to leave, but it's perfectly fine you going in. In fact, she's been looking forward to showing you around."

"You won't be joining us?"

"It's best having no more than two people in the compound at a time, otherwise they could get nervous. You're going to be armed with a stun gun just for safety, but we've never had any trouble with the hybrids getting aggressive. I'll let Sybila brief you on the rules to follow. Are you still okay being here a couple of days?"

"Yes, that's fine, but I am imposing on you to wait for me."

Isu smiled. "Oh, dad is going to be helping me out with some work on the enclosure. Isn't that right?"

Thom grinned. "You're the boss here son, you tell me."

Isu glanced back to Lafiel. "I hope he hasn't been this insufferable all the way out here." Isu was clearly being ironic, but there was a hint of worry as well.

"I assure you that your father has been taking very good care of me, Isu. In fact I was quite impressed at how he kept us fed and comfortable with just the contents of his backpack and a couple of small sheds."

"I'm sure he's told you all about the times he's had to survive with less."

Lafiel was uncertain how much of his past service Thom shared with his family, so she kept her comments general. Before long, Isu took her to the equipment room where she was to be outfitted. She traded her camouflaged shirt and trousers and jungle cap for light shorts, sleeveless shirt and head scarf. It did not take long to show her the operation of the stun gun and calibrate the holster release to her biometrics.

"Can't be having an armed ape rebellion after all," Thom said.

"Dad's just messing with you," Isu assured her. "But they do like to play with things, so keep that locked. Now, let's see how quickly-"

Lafiel did a speed draw, holstered quickly and drew again to get the feel, each time keeping her trigger finger over the guard and thumbing the safety off and back on. "Seven rounds, combined electroshock and nerve agent cocktail, correct?"

Isu and Thom exchanged a look and a smile. "Correct, My Lady," Isu said. "Looks like you're all set."

They walked out to the edge of the large sinkhole. A wire mesh fence projected out at an angle from the top of the cliff all around. Signs and markers identified it as an electrified fence. Just visible was a mesh of wires spread out over the enclosure. On the intersections of the nearest ones Lafiel could see micro-cameras, part of what was presumably an audio and holographic video monitoring network. Somebody was certainly serious about keeping the hybrids confined and under observation. The sinkhole was deep enough that its tree canopy was well below the bottom of the fence, keeping the top of the steep rock cliff exposed all around. "The sinkholes I have seen were all flooded," Lafiel said.

"This one has a natural drain," Isu explained. "But there is plenty of water, that's why you don't need to take any. Sybila will have everything else you need." A ramp led down to a sliding vehicle door. They walked down to the door and Isu checked his wristband. "Sybila says you're good to go, My Lady. Please try the door."

Lafiel looked at her wristband hologram display and saw that the door security had recognized her. She gave the signal and the door slid aside, revealing a short tunnel lit by rows of lamps. "Here's where we leave you, My Lady," Isu said. "Sybila will be at the bottom of the stairs. See you in a couple of days."

Lafiel thanked them both and proceeded into the tunnel, which ended in a similar door. It operated like an airlock, as soon as the outer door finished closing the inner one slid aside. Lafiel stepped out and found herself at the top of a very steep slope. There were two ways down, a narrow stairway with a railing and also a set of widely spaced steps that were presumably for use by a walker. At the bottom of the stairway a woman stood waving. Lafiel returned her wave and made her way carefully down the steep stairs. As she approached, she could see that the woman was short, not quite Lafiel's height. She had just about the darkest skin Lafiel had seen here, and her wiry black hair was cropped short. Her slim, ebony frame was very well muscled, and she was outfitted the same as Lafiel. "Good day, My Lady," she said in accented but fluent Baronh. "I'm Sybila." Her smile broadened. "Welcome to the Planet of the Apes."

Lafiel smiled. "I'm Abriel Lafiel, thank you for inviting me to see your work here."

"Did Isu explain our running joke?"

"Yes, there is a classic story about a world where apes rule over humans."

"More or less. The name is something more than just a bit of frivolity, though. I use it to emphasize to people that as far as the hybrids are concerned this is their world and we are here on their sufferance. They see us as members of a different tribe who sometimes pass through."

Lafiel nodded. Sybila was clearly somebody who got right to the point. "I understand. I will depend on you to teach me how to show proper respect."

Sybila's eyebrows went up as if in pleasant surprise. "You're one of the few people who understood right away how important that is."

"When entering somebody's home, nothing is more important."

"I also see you've been keeping your eyes open."

Lafiel had been treating this as a place where constant situational awareness was required. "Isu said the hybrids are generally not aggressive, but I felt I should try to avoid surprising or being surprised by anyone."

"That's a good attitude." Sybila looked her up and down. "We're taller than they are, that can sometimes intimidate them. I'm glad to see that won't be quite the problem with you as with most."

"I can understand that, since arriving here I have spent much time looking up at people."

Sybila laughed. "Yes, we do grow them tall here, don't we?" She put a hand up to the top of her own head as if measuring her height. "At least most of the time. I've spent my life looking up at people. That's one thing I sort of liked about microgravity, it's a great equalizer."

"You've been in space?"

"Just to pass through. I got my doctorate off-planet, and some post-doctoral field work as well. That's where I learned Baronh. Speaking of that, you known signing don't you?"

Lafiel raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Yes, I do. All Abriel are taught it." Sign language had been a way to communicate in noisy environments or under other circumstances where vocal communication was impractical. It had been centuries since it was really of much use, but Lafiel's clan still learned it out of tradition.

"That's what I thought, it'll make things easier."

"Not many people know about our sign language."

"It's not original to the Abh, it's from Old Earth. When I was researching it, I learned the Abriel had adopted it long ago. That's what the Uplifters were teaching the hybrids."

"Uplifters? You mean the people who made the hybrids?"

"Right, that's what they called themselves. I call them a cult of mad scientists playing God." The contempt Sybila expressed was visceral.

"If their motivation was based on religion, I confess that is something beyond my understanding."

"They claimed giving human intelligence to animals was a moral imperative, I suppose it was a sort of religion. I got to interview a couple of them in prison after the fund trustees hired me to work here. They had some competent people working for them but the leaders were all nutcases. I wouldn't spend much time trying to imagine their motivations, I just concentrate on taking care of their victims as best I can."

"I can't help thinking they were fortunate to find you, Sybila."

Sybila smiled. "I feel fortunate to be here. However I feel about where this all came from, there's no denying it's a unique opportunity for somebody in my field. Are you ready to come meet our hosts?"

"By all means."

"Okay, let's do a test. I'd like to see you sign 'I am Lafiel, may I speak?' Speak out load as well."

Lafiel did so. It had been years, but she found it came back readily enough.

Sybila nodded. "Good. When I introduce you, that's what you'll say. Don't say more unless the one called Leader gives permission."

"I understand. I have to caution you, my vocabulary in sign language is very limited."

Sybila smiled. "I expected as much, your ancestors would have learned it for emergencies. Don't worry, their vocabulary will be even more limited. But before we go, I'm going to have to teach you a little body language."

That took a few minutes. It was mostly learning to express deference and avoid what would be seen as a challenge or a threat. Lafiel was still wondering what would be expected of her. "Will we be expected to serve them in some way?"

Sybila laughed. "Don't worry, they won't lay a hand on us. They wouldn't say so to our faces but they think we're as ugly as sin. It might also help us to give you a tribal name based on words they would know, they have trouble with proper nouns. I took the name Night Thunder. Does the name Lafiel have a particular meaning?"

"It does, but it is likely too complicated. How about 'Child of Love'?" Lafiel signed that name.

"Yes, that'll do fine. When you're talking with them, we have one very important rule: we don't talk about any human technology."

"I'm not sure I understand why, is there no simple technology we could teach them that would help them support themselves?"

"Food is plentiful here and they have no competitors, there's nothing more they really need. More importantly, they've already been victimized by people trying to shape them in our own image. One reason for the surveillance network is to make sure everyone follows that rule. The feeds are all archived and monitored. Anyone we let in here is obligated under Imperial civil contract to follow that rule."

Lafiel nodded. "I understand. You have my agreement."

"Great. Because of some things going on now I want to stay close, so I sleep in the compound. Just a warning, the accommodations are pretty sparse."

"I'm well used to that now, it won't be a problem."

Sybila grinned. "Since Thom brought you and you didn't ask for a walker to take you back already, that pretty much tells me so. Let's go then."

Lafiel followed her into the jungle. They had just been walking for a couple of minutes when Sybila signaled for them to stop. A moment later, Lafiel spotted them. Two apes came walking towards them. They stopped a few meters away and regarded the two women. They were both adult males. Lafiel had seen pictures of chimpanzees, and there was no mistaking that these were different. They were taller, mostly because of their longer legs, though still not as tall as the humans. They seemed to be more comfortable walking upright than she would have expected. One of them carried a large stick, and the natural way he held it looked very much the way a human hand would. Their faces were subtly different from the way she recalled chimpanzees would look, though not in ways that Lafiel could easily articulate. They appeared to be wary and curious.

Sybila crouched down the way she had explained, and Lafiel followed her lead. "Greetings, Rain." Sybila said and signed. "Greetings, Stone. May we see Leader?"

The one without a stick stepped forward. He vocalized as he signed in return. His vocalization was not anything Lafiel could follow, but she found that she could read his sign language easily enough. _Greetings Night Thunder. Is the white one from your __clan__?_

"Yes, Rain. She is Child of Love. I would like to ask the Leader if she may speak."

_You follow. _Rain turned around and led them further into the jungle. When they passed by Stone, he fell in some distance behind. Through the tiara hidden under her head scarf, Lafiel's Froth sense showed him keeping pace with them.

After a couple of minutes Lafiel saw movement up in the trees. Several juvenile hybrids came leaping and swinging across the branches. As they approached Lafiel could begin to hear them crying out excitedly. They stayed in the trees, shadowing the procession of adults and humans. The oldest looking female stood on a branch and did a clumsy signing that was probably supposed to be Night Thunder. Lafiel had all sorts of questions for Sybila, but she kept her silence as she had been told to.

Presently they came to a clearing that was dominated by a high pile of large rocks all tumbled over each other. Several adults were lounging on the rocks. The juveniles had scrambled down from the trees and were now also among the rocks, looking back and still jumping and crying out. The adults paid only scant notice to them or to the approaching party.

Rain led them to stand below a particularly large male sitting by himself on top of a rock. Sybila crouched down, and Lafiel did likewise. "Greetings, Leader. This one is a member of my clan."

"I am called Child of Love," Lafiel said and signed, looking up at Leader. "May I speak?"

Leader looked her over for a long moment. He locked eyes with her and signed. His vocalization was sharp and commanding. _Child of Love, you may speak. How many years have you?_

Lafiel guessed Leader was trying to establish her position in her own clan's hierarchy. She made a quick mental conversion to Delktou years, though she wondered if that would make the number any more meaningful. "Leader, I have twenty-two years."

_Your mother and father are alive?_

"My mother is dead. My father is alive."

_Does your mother speak?_

His signing was clear enough, but Lafiel was puzzled by the question. Had he misunderstood her? "Leader, my mother is dead. She cannot speak."

_Do you know where your mother is?_

Lafiel was unsure whether he was asking her if she knew where her mother's body lay or if she believed that her mother had some immortal spirit. The answer to both was the same, so Lafiel decided to keep it simple. "No, I do not know where my mother is."

Leader seemed somehow disappointed by that answer. After a moment, he signed again. His vocalization was still loud, but seemed to be directed less specifically at her now. _Child of Love, you may __stay. You may__ eat and drink._

A nearby female stood and signed _Child of Love, I am Blue Sky. _One by one the adult hybrids stood, signed Lafiel's clan name and gave their own. Lafiel was having some difficulty picking out individuals, but she tried to associate their names as best she could. When the last one spoke, Leader climbed down from the rocks and walked over to the two women. He placed his hand lightly on Lafiel's head, then turned and walked back. The other adults were either just sitting back down where they were or wandering off. Many of the juveniles had a very different reaction. They had been keeping their distance, now as Leader walked away many of them approached cautiously. Lafiel's Froth sense showed others approaching along the ground from behind. Sybila stood up straight, and Lafiel did likewise. Lafiel felt a bit anxious, it appeared she had been given leave to remain here but was unsure if there was something she needed to do.

Sybila's smile suggested there was no problem. "It's okay, you are a guest now." She bent down and scooped up one of the small juveniles who were now scampering about underfoot. Lafiel wondered if she ought to do the same, but one of them took matters into her own hands by climbing Lafiel like a tree and perching on her shoulder. It was difficult for Lafiel to hide her discomfort over this development, were they all going to start crawling over her now? They didn't, but a couple of others started tugging gently at her long hair.

"That's why I cut mine short," Sybila said. "But this is great, I can teach them how to braid hair."

"Are you joking?" Lafiel soon found out that she wasn't.

"This explains why they don't smell too badly," Lafiel commented, watching a number of the hybrids washing and soaking in the clear water of the large pool.

"From the Uplifeters' notes, that started pretty soon after they were talking to each other," Sybila said. While Lafiel sat on a rock, Sybila was busy untangling the mess the juveniles had made of Lafiel's hair. Some of them had actually done a passable job of making braids, but the result had been wildly asymmetrical. "As soon as the phrase 'you stink' developed into an insult, personal grooming and hygiene became a great virtue."

"I was unsure what I expected to see here. Before I set out I did try finding some information on the hybrids but there was very little."

"They have become something of an embarrassment. Zoologists do not regard them as a proper subject of study and genetic engineers see them as both a technical failure and a breach of professional ethics. None of our work here gets into peer reviewed journals."

"That reminds me of how the Mimics were treated before their rebellion. Their existence was a sin that people just wanted to sweep under the rug and stop thinking about."

"The hybrids are not going to be rebelling any time soon. When they were taken from the Uplifters these chimera were very much a work in progress, more a proof of concept than anything. It's hard to compare but they have a level of intelligence equivalent to our ancestors from a few hundred thousand years ago."

"Do you think they could have done it, engineer chimpanzees with human level intelligence?"

"I don't think the question is even meaningful. These are not evolved chimpanzees, they are hybrids with genes stolen from our species and from theirs. The Uplifters thought they were freeing the chimps to reach their own potential when really they were really just making their own sort of designer humans."

"Perhaps the end result would have been something like my own people," Lafiel suggested. When she got no response she added "I did not take offense, I was just pointing out the irony."

Sybila was silent for a moment before continuing in a more subdued tone. "Our trust fund was started by a consortium of businessmen on Dreuhynu Gogam who wanted to do public relations damage control for their realm. But in fact the most generous contributors were all Abh."

"Our first generation had genetic modifications done upon them without consent, and not for reasons that were to their benefit. We have never forgotten that."

"I'd heard those rumors. It's one reason I was sort of interested in showing you around and getting your impressions."

"It's fascinating, but also very disturbing. Ow!"

"Sorry, this one tied a real sailor's knot. I'm almost done, after we've washed I can braid it and put it up properly."

"You think that I should?"

"You saw how much fun those kids were having, and you're the only one around with long hair."

Lafiel grunted. "You're right we should remove temptation. My thanks."

"No worries. I'm having fun too, your hair is gorgeous."

"Thank you."

"To be honest I'm surprised at how good a sport you've been, I was really expecting you to go running back up the stairs inside an hour."

"I will admit it was annoying. But the young ones did not hurt me, they were just being playful. Which is more than I can say for the adults, they seem to be ignoring us."

"The adults are never very energetic, but they're in a bit more of a funk than usual right now. Leader's father is dying."

"Is it something incurable?"

"Yes, old age."

"I see. I was wondering about the questions that Leader asked me, it was very odd. Did he think I can help his father in some way?"

"Not exactly. A lot of them have the idea there is somebody out there who can speak with the dead or who knows where the dead have gone. They ask those sorts of questions to everybody I bring here."

Lafiel thought about that for a moment. "Sybila, the adults realize that they all die eventually, don't they?"

"Yes, they do. After just a couple of generations talking with each other, they figured that out."

"Do you think chimpanzees understand that?"

"I doubt it. Before I was here I worked a year with a chimp preserve on the mainland. When one of them died, the rest didn't do much of anything. We just took the body away and they went on as if nothing happened. If any chimp even thought about that, they would have no way of expressing it. The hybrids, they bury their dead. I'm pretty sure none of us taught them that."

"Do they perhaps understand that dead bodies are a source of disease?"

"They understand that things long dead are to be avoided, but the burial isn't for that. It's ritualized, and there's a period of mourning that always goes on for days."

"They have a graveyard?"

"Not as such, they don't keep track of where the dead are buried. In fact for a while after burial they avoid the site. They also avoid those who they think are close to death. Leader's father is on the other side of the compound, only Leader goes to see him each day to bring him food. He obviously doesn't like doing it."

"He must feel a sense of duty."

"I don't know, I've asked but they don't like talking about it. Okay, I'm done here." Sybila stood up and worked her wristband. "Just give me a moment to turn off recorders."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, as long as the motion sensors show I'm not in close proximity to any hybrids."

"Why turn them off?"

Sybila grinned and stripped off her shirt. "You don't want to give a show to the folks who review our video records, do you?"

Washing in the pool was a great relief. As they soaked, Lafiel watched the adults on the other side of the pool and laying on the surrounding rocks. She judged their manner with new eyes now. What she had been seeing as sloth or indifference looked now more like despondency or even despair.

"You've got a very profound look on your face," Sybila said.

"I was just trying to understand what exactly it is we've done to these hybrids. It looks like we've robbed them of their blissful innocence but given them nothing in return. They have no history, no future to work for, no source of pride or hope."

"It sort of makes you wonder if our ancestors were something like this for half a million years or more."

"As I understand our ancestors had religion to comfort them. It may sound odd coming from an Abh but maybe that's what the hybrids need."

Sybila laughed. "Oh, don't let anyone hear you say that, they'd put down a restraining order barring you from this place for good. Same with teaching them to make tools or anything else, we're strictly forbidden. Any of that, they need to do it themselves."

"They can hardly build their own civilization trapped in this sinkhole."

"Would you give them their own planet for a million years?"

"I would like to, but that does sound impractical. It must be frustrating for you, knowing that the people you are observing are trapped in this way."

Sybila smiled. "You are one of the few I have heard refer to hybrids as people."

"If they can contemplate their own condition so deeply, what else could I call them?"

"Centuries ago there were genetic disorders that would produce children with severely retarded mental functions. They were treated as people but had to be under the care of specialists. It's been so long since we've had to deal with something like that, I think we've lost both the moral framework and the expertise."

Lafiel found herself thinking that the Collective might have something to say about dealing with minds far less capable than their own. She had survived her encounter with them, but she had no desire to go looking for them in the galactic core to ask their advice. Something caught her eye. "Is that one teaching language to the juveniles?"

"Yes. The young ones congregate in groups according to language ability. They have a lot of incentive to learn since greater skill with language lets them hang with the older kids and gives them higher status." Sybila pointed. "Those kids are playing the 'name this thing' game."

"Can we go watch?"

Sybila grinned. "Even better, they'll probably let us play. But I'll do your hair up first."

# # # #

When Lafiel woke this time, there was an arm draped across her chest. She sighed. With care, she lifted Sybila's arm off her and set it down between them on the inflatable mattress. The sleeping woman snorted a bit, then went back to snoring. She had explained that sheltered areas to sleep were in short supply near where the hybrids congregated, and those highest in the clan hierarchy got the choicest ones. She and Sybila shared a space under a closely overhanging rock that would shelter them from any rain. A good thing too, she could see the ground nearby was damp. But a brisk wind had cleared the rainclouds from the sky, there was a rare cloudless night sky. _It has been days since I saw the stars. _She got up, dressed and climbed up the tumble of large rocks, taking care to avoid places where hybrids were sleeping.

When she reached the top, she found that she was not alone. In the dark, it was difficult to identify individuals, about all she could tell is that it was an adult female. The hybrid swiveled where she sat to face Lafiel and signed what Lafiel guessed was _Greetings, Child of Love._

If she really expected Lafiel to read her signing then their night vision must be better than humans or Abh. Lafiel unbuckled her belt. The sighting light worked even when the gun was holstered and locked, so she set it on wide beam, set it down between them and sat down. She could now see that the other was Blue Sky, whom she now understood was mated to Leader. "Greetings, Blue Sky," she signed, speaking softly.

Blue Sky looked curiously at the light. _Is this a star?_

"No, it is not a star. I came here to see the stars."

_I like to watch the stars._

Lafiel glanced at her wristband. The light warning of camera surveillance was on. Lafiel considered her intended action for just a second. Technically, it was not a violation. "What do you like about the stars?"

_I wonder what they are. Do you know?_

"The stars are the same as the sun, but they are very far away."

Lafiel now had some experience judging the hybrids' facial expressions, but Blue Sky's expression was impenetrable. If she had any reaction, it was not something that her face was able to readily express. After a few seconds, she asked _Did somebody tell you this?_

"The stars are where I live. My clan is called Kin of the Stars."

_Night Thunder says you are from the Water Clan._

Lafiel surmised that was how Sybila referred to the islanders. "The Water Clan is part of my clan."

_Is your clan very large?_

"Yes, we live near many stars."

Blue Sky looked up into the sky again. There was a glimmer of something in her face, something Lafiel did not feel competent to name. She decided to give it a name anyway: wonder.

Blue Sky turned back to Lafiel and signed. _How can you walk to another star?_

"We have shelters that fly like birds."

_Can you teach me to make one?_

"It is very difficult. I do not know how to make one alone. It takes many people a very long time. The people who make it must learn many, many things."

_Is it magic?_

"No. I have never seen magic."

Blue Sky looked very pensive for a while. Then she looked intently at Lafiel. _I think the people in your clan are very clever. I think they are more clever than us._

"We are clever because our mothers and fathers learned many things. They taught us many things. We learn new things and teach them to our children. It takes a very long time to be clever. It starts with simple things."

_Can you teach me some things?_

"Yes, but you must ask the thing you want to know."

Blue Sky thought for a while. _There is a star that moves very slowly. _She pointed. _That one. Why does it move?_

"It is Land. It is like this land. It moves around the sun."

Hours later, in the pre-dawn twilight, Lafiel made a promise to be here tomorrow night.

# # # #

Sybila stopped at the top of the rock pile and pointed. "Girl, would you mind explaining what _this _is?"

Lafiel looked at the marks on the rock face Sybila was pointing at, clearly visible in the morning light. "I am still not too familiar with the local star field but I believe that is called the Crab constellation."

Sybila glared at her. "Now answer the real question."

"Blue Sky has been trying to track how the planet Velsue passes across the sky. I suggested she needs something to help her remember where it was. That's what she came up with."

"You didn't draw this?"

"No. I didn't know what kind of stones would be effective for marking this rock. She did."

Sybila sighed, putting her hand to her forehead as if staving off a headache. "My Lady-"

"My friends call me Lafiel."

Sybila crossed her arms. "No they don't. You'll not be softening me up here, this is serious."

"I followed your prohibition against discussing technologies they could use. How could they use astronomy? Certainly they have no need for navigation."

"I don't appreciate people playing games with me."

"I was not aware of playing any games. If I misunderstood what was proscribed in my interaction with the hybrids then you have my apology. I take full responsibility for my actions."

They stared each other down for a few seconds. "I am sorry My Lady, but I am obliged to cut short your stay here."

"I understand. I was scheduled to rejoin my guides later today anyway, so that will not be a problem."

Sybila made the call and led Lafiel back to the stairway. They walked in silence. A few minutes later, it seemed Sybila's step became more leisurely. "My Lady, I'm sorry I took a piece out of you like that."

Lafiel checked her wristband. The recorders were off now. "It's okay, Sybila. I know you were playing for the cameras to establish due diligence."

Sybila's mouth spread in a wicked grin. "I knew you had been up and about these past two nights. But damn, I just about started dancing when I saw that star map. Blue Sky really did that?"

"Yes, she did. She says that she will be tracking the course of Velsue for a turn of the seasons."

"I knew she was special, but those idiots on the board won't let us teach them anything at all. There's some little creep who's only job is to monitor all the camera audio and video feeds that record whenever any of us is close to the hybrids. Nice work if you can get it."

"Sybila, in all seriousness, have I undermined your position here?"

"Those cowards won't dare raise a stink if it means taking a complaint to an Abriel. Damn, I could just kiss you."

"No offense intended, but that is not my custom."

"I was really worried you would mess up. If you had taught her how to make fire or flint axes I would have had your lily-white hide deported off this rock in a heartbeat."

Lafiel smiled. "If I knew how to make either from local materials, I might have been tempted. I do not even know what flint looks like."

"There isn't any in this sinkhole."

"If in the future you are directing any landscaping here, you might want to introduce some, just to give the local geology some variety."

Sybila laughed. "Girl, you are dangerous!"

The remainder of their walk was much more amiable. When they emerged from the jungle, they were surprised to see Blue Sky waiting for them near the foot of the stairway. She signed a greeting to them and looked at Lafiel. _Child of Love, you are leaving today._

"Yes, Blue Sky, I am leaving now."

_I want to go to the stars with you. I know that I cannot. I am happy that you were here. I am sad that you are leaving._

"I feel the same way. I am happy that I was here, and I am sad that I must leave."

_I will always remember you._

"And I will always remember you. Learn many things, Blue Sky. Teach your children everything you know. They will teach their children. Many seasons from now, their children will go to the stars."

_I will do that. Live long, Child of Love._

"Live long, Blue Sky."

They watched her leave. Sybila smiled warmly. "Thank you for coming here, Child of Love. Even if your little transgression comes to naught, for me it's already been worth it."

"If I could teach even one person that learning about the world is a source of pride, that was enough."

"I really think you've done more than that."

"This is not my custom either, but..." Lafiel extended her hand. "It has been a pleasure, Night Thunder."

Sybila clasped her hand. "Same here. Take care of yourself."

"And you."

Isu and Thom were waiting for Lafiel when she emerged from the tunnel, they both look mildly worried. "You're early, My Lady," Isu said. "Sybila didn't say much, was there any problem?"

"Quite the contrary, being here exceeded all my expectations," Lafiel said, unable to keep the grin from her face. "I just did not want to overstay our hosts' welcome. They were very gracious, but they will likely be dealing with a funeral service before long. This was the best time for me to leave. I hope I have not interrupted your work."

They both looked pleased if somewhat taken aback by her response. "We finished up yesterday," Thom said. "We were just out hunting something to supplement the kitchen rations."

"With these?" Lafiel said eagerly, patting her stun gun.

"No, with a blowgun," Isu said. "Since you're back early, maybe I can teach you how to use one."

"It sounds like an improvement on catching hens with my hand."

"With your hand?" Isu looked suspiciously at his father. "Dad, what have you been up to?"

"Just teaching the young lady how to improvise in the field, son."

"I'll bet." Isu grinned apologetically at Lafiel. "Never fear, My Lady. I'll be accompanying you back to the house, so I can save you from this madness and teach you some proper field-craft."

"I put myself in your hands, Isu. I guess that means I should be returning this to you now." She unbuckled her gun-belt and handed it over, feeling just a little bit disappointed. She had never fired it, but it had lit up some happy memories.

# # # #

"Are they back yet?" Jinto asked, working the tiller as they sailed through the bay towards the house.

"I already told you they are," Geith said, minding the sail. "Isu sent a message an hour ago."

"I haven't heard anything from Lafiel."

"Didn't you both say you would only message in an emergency?"

"Yes, I guess we sort of did." That was the traditional agreement to make before debarking on an island circuit.

"Well, I guess there sort of wasn't any emergency."

"It's just that we'll be making them wait," Jinto pointed out.

"With this wind we'll be there well before dinner. They just finished doing one of dad's four-day tramps, they're probably happy to be able to have an afternoon nap first. I know I would be."

"I remember that all too well. I hope she had a good time. What's so funny?"

Geith stopped laughing. "All day you've had the look of a man being led to his execution. If she was upset about anything Isu would have sent up a flare for us. Relax, we've got it covered."

Another tradition of the island circuit was that you did not call ahead when you were returning. Geith had only inquired about Lafiel's whereabouts after much badgering and threats to pull rank and use the military network. Still, as per custom they were not met at the pier. After securing the boat, Jinto and Geith grabbed their bags and climbed up to the house. Geith led them to the kitchen, where Beth gave them both a big hug. The sight of her dinner preparations was breathtaking. "There are at least ten things that smell great," Jinto said.

"This is mostly for the folks back from tramping," Beth said, grinning. "But I suppose we can set a couple of places for you two slackers as well."

"Speaking of the tramp-"

"Lafiel's in Emery's room getting dressed," Beth interrupted. "Don't worry, they know when dinner is. It's formal tonight, so go get spruced up you two."

"I hope you mean island formal, not Imperial formal," Jinto said.

"Naturally. Now scoot, I still have things to kill."

Island formal for men was a white blazer and slacks with open-collar shirt. Jinto was glad to see that his still fit. When he and Geith came to the table, only Lafiel and Emery were missing. In just a few minutes, they made their entrance. Island formal for women involved draping yourself in sheets of elaborately patterned silk. Jinto had been looking forward to this, and he was not disappointed. Lafiel looked stunning. She and Emery seemed to glide across the floor, borne aloft by billowing sails of silk that rippled in their wake. _I bet they've been practicing that walk._

After sitting down and greeting their hosts, Lafiel directed her dazzling smile on Jinto and Geith. "I'm glad to see you two managed to find your way back."

"I'm happy to see how you're enjoying your return to civilization," Jinto said. "I'll bet I am not the first to say, but you make that look great." Her hair was done up in some elaborate braids that must have taken a lot of work.

"I daresay we are both looking much more presentable than we were a short while ago." She looked him up and down as if confirming the fact. Jinto fidgeted a little.

"I've been dying to get her into one of those since she got here," Emery said. "The wait was worth it." She made no attempt to hide that she appreciated the result no less than the men in the room. If Lafiel minded, she showed no sign.

"My Lady, I would like to hear how my son has been treating you on your journey," Mari said from her place at the other end of the table. Her own silks were only slightly more subdued than what the other women wore.

"There is much to tell, Mari." Lafiel said brightly.

There was. A lot of it was familiar to Jinto, who had gone on more than one of Thom's long tramps all those years ago. But some things were new. Lafiel did not seem to mind when Jinto laughed louder than anyone over her hen hunting technique. Jinto had been quite confident that she and Thom would hit it off, he was very happy and relieved to confirm he had been right. She only spoke in general terms about the fact that they had connected as fellow soldiers, but Jinto could well imagine they had been swapping stories well into the night. He was also relieved to see that she had treated the rough conditions on the trail as a challenge rather than a burden.

Jinto had been wondering why Lafiel had seemed so immensely pleased with herself. After she related her encounter with the chimp hybrids, he had no more need to wonder.

Their return journey had been a bit more of a mixed bag. Lafiel's attempts at hunting with a blowgun had been a spectacular failure, even a precision carbon-fiber one was a fiendishly difficult weapon to master. They left it to Jinto to try and explain to her why fitting a laser sighting system would be defeating the purpose of the exercise.

The dinner did not go quite as late as the one they had when Jinto and Lafiel had first arrived, but it was dark when they retired to their suite. It had become their habit to sit out on the patio before going to sleep, but Lafiel went to sit down on the sunken couch in the living room. Understandable, without climate control those silks would be hot. Jinto sat down beside her. "It looks like Emery really had fun getting you dressed up."

"Yes, it's been good being with her again." She smiled. "It's good to be back with you again, I have missed you."

"I've missed you too, Lafiel. But you were right about doing this, it looks like we both had fun. I should have guessed you would take the opportunity to carry on your life's mission."

Lafiel looked puzzled. "My life's mission? What do you mean?"

Jinto smiled for a moment before answering. "A long time ago I came to the conclusion that setting people free is your life's work."

"How have I been doing that?"

"You have a rap sheet of staging jailbreaks that's the length of my arm. You freed Seelnay and her friends from a tyrant. You freed Marca and her cohorts from their home planet so that they could travel the galaxy in their own trade ship. You freed a hundred thousand women from a prison planet. You freed the Collective from the Mimics who had been exploiting them. You freed the Silejians to have children in the way they want. And now you've freed the hybrids to dream of going to the stars. Face it, the jury has no need to retire."

Lafiel regarded him intently. "What have I freed you from, Jinto?" she asked softly.

"I thought I told you that a long time ago. You freed me from fear. As long as I am with you, I can tread unknown roads without fear. Now do you confess to your life of crime?"

"Only if you will admit to your own complicity."

"I will concede I had a small role in some of your capers."

"I think history will judge that you were my partner in crime from the start."

Jinto smiled. "A criminal mind is all I've ever known. I have no remorse in me at all."

Lafiel's profound look brightened. "I shamelessly monopolized conversation at dinner tonight. It's your turn to confess, Jinto. You must tell me about absolutely everything you did on your island circuit."

Jinto told her about most of it.

End Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

**Furlough**

**A Banner of the Stars Story**

Chapter 4 – Private Matters

The topmost part of the climb was a bit more rough than the rest had been, especially for bare feet. Lafiel picked her way among the rocks and stopped where the path came to an end at the cliff edge. She peered down to the large water pool that they had climbed up from. It was a typical round sinkhole, a common feature in the eccentric geology of Moruweka island. This one was cut into a steep slope, so one side was overlooked by an exceptionally high cliff. Lafiel was on top of that cliff. There were four women swimming in the pool. One of them spotted Lafiel and waved. Lafiel waved back. They all started treading water facing her, in anticipation of what was to come.

Emery came up beside her. Like Lafiel, she was in her swimsuit. Lafiel was still in her military issue suit, having declined an offer to borrow one of the two-piece suits that the others wore. "So what do you think?" Emery asked, sounding a bit hesitant as if she did not want it to seem she was prodding Lafiel to proceed.

"It is twenty-three meters," Lafiel responded, using the Froth sense of her plain military-grade tiara. "May I go first?"

"Sure."

After making several dives from progressively higher points around the pool, and watching some dives taken from here, Lafiel was quite confident. But she would be cautious, a bad dive from here would really hurt. She launched herself out over the water, arching her back and spreading her arms out wide. Her eyes saw cloud-dappled sky, then rock, then water as her body rolled back. She largely ignored her visual field, letting her Froth tell her exactly where she was and where she was heading. She brought her arms up, forming a knife-edge with her hands, locking her limbs to let her body be a missile.

The impact into the bracing water was perfect, but it was still a shock, much harder than she had expected. _You are still learning to judge this gravity field. _She let momentum carry her as far as it would, reoriented her body and opened her eyes. She had already been diving deep into the pool with the others, so the sight was familiar now. It was an exceptionally deep pool, she was nowhere near the bottom. A break in the clouds now sent shimmering beams of light angling through the clear water. The terraformers had never introduced any plants that would grow under fresh water, so the pools were always clear, they were confined by just the bare rock and some sand.

Lafiel would like to have just floated here for a minute to appreciate the peaceful beauty, but the others might get worried. She swam back up, following the trail of bubbles she had left. She broke the surface, took a couple of deep breaths and swam across the pool to join the others. They congratulated her on her first dive from the highest cliff. They all turned to watch Emery's dive. She did the same back-flip dive Lafiel had done. _She is so graceful, truly a joy to watch. _When she surfaced, Emery swam over to join them. "I'm famished, let's get dinner ready," she said.

Dinner was something called a "clambake." Lafiel offered and was given some simple tasks, but for the most part she watched, clearly this was a very familiar process to Emery's friends. They all continued to talk as preparations were made.

The days since returning from their respective trips, she and Jinto had largely spent together with Emery and Geith. But today had been declared girls' night out and guys' night out, a segregated day. It was another example of something Lafiel had come to understand, the greater role that gender played here than it did among the Abh. She had heard of worlds where women were cloistered in their homes and rarely ventured forth. Her vassal Seelnay had been from such a world, and had been happy to leave it. Certainly neither the planet Delktou nor its principality of Moruweka were anything like that, but still there was a division between the genders that Lafiel found puzzling. It is something she knew existed, just from the simple fact that the vast majority of lander recruits for the Space Force were male.

Lafiel was meeting Emery's girlfriend for the first time. Shyori was a very pretty pale-skinned woman with straight blonde hair cut almost as long as Lafiel's. Her figure was somewhat more ample than most women Lafiel had seen here. Absently she wondered whether Emery found that more attractive. Lafiel could certainly see Shyori's appeal as a companion, she was very charming and considerate. She was apparently learning how to make boats from wood, a material that Lafiel had always thought was purely decorative. Her parents had bought up a house in the bay when she was very young, and for her part it appeared she had taken to the local lifestyle without reservation.

Cicila, Ashlin and Rosa were all cut from much the same cloth as Emery, what Lafiel had come to view as the common phenotype for young women in the island enclave. They were tall, brown-skinned women with athletic builds who hailed from second or third generation islander families. Lafiel had met each of them at least once in chance encounters over the past days, but this was her first time spending any time with them. They were all very welcoming towards her, as she would hope from anybody regarded as friends by somebody of Emery's character.

_But for a girls' night out, they do spend an inordinate amount of time talking about men._

They continued to talk as they sat on the sand and ate. It seemed Rosa had recently turned down a marriage proposal, something that caught Lafiel's interest. "Jinto tells me islanders say that to marry late is to marry well," she said.

"That sounds more like something old-blood islanders say," Rosa said. "The thing is, I'm pretty sure Nel is going to want to leave the island some time, so it just wouldn't work."

"Most islanders are a lot more attached to the place than my family, My Lady," Emery explained. "We're considered very eccentric."

"Oh, Nel's not _your _level of eccentric," Rosa said brightly, "But seriously, he's thinking of the capital. That's like three hundred miles from the ocean, I'd just die."

"Shame, he's a nice guy," Cicila said. "You going to break up?" she asked Rosa.

Lafiel was getting more used to the greater level of frankness in personal matters, but the question still took her by surprise. Was she really asking about something Rosa had not even discussed with her lover yet?

"No, he's being good about it so we'll see. Who knows, he may decide to stay after all." She smiled at Lafiel. "This must seem odd to you, not wanting to get married just because I don't want to go to the other side of the same planet."

"Not at all, home is home regardless of how large or small it is."

"Long-distance relationships must be pretty common in the Empire," Ashlin said.

"Yes, especially among the gentry," Lafiel said. "Generally only one parent raises the children while the other goes to wherever their duties take them."

They did not ask about Lafiel's own family circumstance, a politeness that she appreciated. But they made up for it by the enthusiasm with which they spoke of their own. Any general query on Lafiel's part could lead to a torrent of details she had not asked about. For all that they had passed off the advice on marrying late as an idea from outside the enclave, it seemed that Rosa was the only one who had even come close to any sort of long-term relationship yet. Perhaps young Abh were little different, but they were far more private about it. Lafiel was somewhat relieved when conversation shifted to work and water sports.

When they were pretty much done eating, Lafiel noticed Ashlin pull an odd device from her pouch. It was a short pipe with a sealed glass bowl in the middle and a small open bowl at the end. She inserted some gray, gummy substance into the bowl and put the other end to her mouth. With a flick of her thumb, a small flame emerged from next to the bowl. The flame was drawn into the bowl, apparently in response to her inhaling through the pipe, which also sent bubbles coursing through the liquid in the glass. She exhaled thin white smoke and passed it to Emery. She did likewise and held it to Lafiel. "Would you like a hit?"

"What is it?"

"Hash. From a modded plant, legal in both jurisdictions and certified safe." She smiled. "Sorry, I just always assume everyone has seen it. The active ingredient is Tetrahydrocannabinol, a mild psychoactive."

"Like alcohol, only better," Cicila said.

Lafiel took the pipe hesitantly. "Thank you." Lafiel's blood-brain barrier filtered out most psychoactive drugs that had not been specifically tailored for the Abh, so she could see no harm. Lafiel did as she had seen, and almost suppressed the urge to cough as she exhaled the smoke. "Sorry."

"Well done," Shyori said brightly, taking the pipe from Lafiel. "But this is nothing, some old blood islanders grind up leaves from their own plants and smoke it, now _that _stuff is harsh."

"You have tried that?" Lafiel asked.

"Just once. Never again, I swear."

The pipe got passed around to everyone and they finished eating. Lafiel felt a little light-headed, but her wristband monitors were not showing any anomalies in her physiology. The feeling was not unpleasant and not getting worse so she passed it off as much the same mild effect as too much alcohol. Emery mentioned to the other women about Geith taking Jinto on an island circuit in the sailboat, which sent Lafiel's mind off on a tangent. She sort of half-listened for a while.

Emery or somebody put a hand on her shoulder. Lafiel sort of registered that she asked something to the effect of "My Lady, is there something bothering you?"

Lafiel spoke quickly, following her train of thought. "Yes, there is something bothering me. I am certain that Jinto has been hiding something from me. Something must have happened on his island circuit that he feels guilty about. I find it hard to believe he committed any crime, he was with Geith the entire time and Geith would not risk his family's reputation. Especially since he has a child on the way. That would suggest Jinto had an affair with a woman but that makes no sense either. They were never in one place for more than a day. Jinto does not make friends that quickly. He and I became friends rather quickly but it was quite a while before I could say we were close. He is generally nervous around women he does not know well, even after all this time Ekuryua still intimidates him. The only other thing that comes to mind is that he ran into an old girlfriend. He did spend several months here over the three years before he and I met. He was an impressionable youth far from home and he is generally regarded as being attractive so it would be no surprise if he had a girlfriend while he was here. His problem on the mainland was that everyone was intimidated by his position as Count. I had much the same problem myself. Certainly there were boys at the academy whom I liked but they all seemed to think I would have my grandmother ship them off to Hell in chains if they so much as asked me out to dinner. If I took the initiative they just wouldn't stop looking at me as if I were a walking radiation hazard. When I met Jinto he did not even know who I was so it was a lot different. Since the war started it has just been one crisis after another and we seem to have settled into a comfortable relationship as old friends. After I almost lost him at Lobnas I really wondered if things might change between us but then this whole business with the Collective came up and I just couldn't seem to think of anything else. It's no wonder the Emperor covered up the truth and made it the highest level state secret. If everyone knew that-"

"Stop! Stop!" Rosa cried, waving her hands in front of her as if that could ward off the truth. "We'd rather not know any Imperial state secrets, thank you! Dammit Ashlin, what the hell did you put in the hash?"

"Nothing!" Ashlin insisted. "It's Moruwkea Gold! The expensive one... with the pica root extract."

Lafiel had lost her train of thought. It could not have been anything important. "What's pica root?"

"It's a stimulant," Emery answered. "Mostly."

"I think mixed drugs was a bad idea," Cicily said to nobody in particular.

"This is just making me happy I don't have man problems any more," Shyori said.

Emery sighed. "Honey, that's not really the issue here."

That piqued Lafiel's interest. "Man problems? You used to have romantic relations with men?"

Shyori looked confused by the question. Odd, it had been simple enough. "Yeah... I'm mostly oriented to women but I'm kind of bi."

"Interesting." Lafiel leaned in and looked closer. "I thought maybe you had surgical enhancements but looking closer I can see your distribution of tissue is entirely natural. It reminds me of the fleet commander's chief-of-staff, I met her once, she has a similar build. A lot of people think she was romantically involved with one of the Bebaus brothers, there's much speculation about which one."

"Okay, I'm shutting down this stream of consciousness right now," Emery said. She took Lafiel's face firmly in her hands. "My Lady, you're having a bad reaction to the drugs and you need to sleep it off."

"I fee fine."

"I know, that's the problem. Now please lie down."

"Okay."

Lafiel did what she was told, after all she knew that she could trust Emery. There were so many things running through her head, but without anything to prompt her they all just faded into an incoherent white noise. She was asleep in a surprisingly short time.

# # # #

_They really seem to like her, _Jinto thought as he watched Lafiel hanging onto the dorsal fin of a dolphin and being swept away yet again, surrounded by the rest of the pod. They began to disappear into the distance and Jinto came to the surface, clearing out his snorkel. It might have something to do with the fact that she could stay underwater almost as long as they could. Maybe that gave her some sort of credentials with them.

He saw Emery swimming towards him at the impressive speed she could sustain with snorkel and flippers. "Glad you could join us," he said as she came alongside.

Emery removed her snorkel and tread water. "Glad I could find you," she returned. "They're really taking her all over the place. You getting tired?"

"Yes, a bit."

"Okay, let's flag down our ride." She waved. Geith had been shadowing them in the cruiser, he now brought it alongside them. Jinto and Emery climbed onto the stern dive platform. Emery stripped off her flippers and tossed them up into the open stern. "We should help Geith do spotting."

"Okay."

They both took wide-angle binoculars and watched for where Lafiel and her new family would surface, directing Geith where to steer them. Sometimes the dolphins did not move for a while. That was probably when they were taking Lafiel on some of those deep dives that had really alarmed Emery. When Lafiel came up and her wetsuit monitor registered a max depth over fifty meters, Emery had insisted she strap a small emergency high-pressure aqualung to her waist. And Emery was still worried.

"It's like they're testing her," Emery said as they both scanned the horizon. "I've never seen behavior like this."

"Maybe somehow they've figured out she's different from us," Jinto suggested. "Closer to them."

"That's sort of ironic," Geith said. He was a lot more relaxed than Emery, enjoying the easy job of pointing the boat where they told him to. "She may be the first Abh to ever swim with dolphins."

"Abh deal with pressure changes better than we do," Jinto said, leaving it at that. The rest was classified.

"That's what she keeps telling me," Emery said. "I just hope she knows her limit."

The girls had insisted their night out had been a great success, but Jinto had detected hints of something else... not serious, just enough to put Emery on edge. Jinto could sympathize, Emery was responsible for Lafiel's safety. It was hard for Jinto to be worried, knowing full well what Lafiel was capable of shrugging off.

"I see her," Jinto announced. "Looks like the pod finally left her behind, she's waving us in."

Geith angled the boat in towards her. As they approached, Emery said to Jinto "Why don't you go bring her in. I'll get lunch started."

"Sounds good." Jinto walked astern and jumped onto the dive platform. When Geith killed the jets, Lafiel swam in and Jinto handed her up. "So, have you taught them the elements of astronomy and organic chemistry yet?"

Lafiel pulled off her mask and snorkel. "Idiot, I can't even hear what they're saying," she said. But she was all smiles. "I think they were starting to use body language. I could tell when one wanted to take me on a deep dive or let me ride it on the surface."

"What's your max depth?"

Lafiel looked. "Eighty-seven meters."

"Are you kidding? Emery is going to have a fit."

Lafiel stood up. "I'm sure I could endure double that, but I set a one hundred twenty meter limit for myself."

Jinto enjoyed watching her strip out of her wetsuit. Emery still hadn't convinced her to ditch the Abh ground forces standard issue swimsuit... certainly she wore it well, but it was a bit of a shame nonetheless. "I wonder if they were trying to talk with you."

Lafiel dumped her wetsuit into the boat and sat back down on the platform. "Emery told me they do talk but they don't have any sort of language syntax. They're not the hybrids after all. Those Uplifters had actually done some preliminary work on trying to enhance the dolphins' language abilities, but they're so different from us, they hardly knew where to begin."

"I guess that's lucky for the dolphins. Want to get out of the rain?" It had been spitting for a while, but was really starting to come down now.

"No, I like it."

"So do I."

Lafiel arched her back and closed her eyes, letting the rain cascade down her upturned face. "They just seem to be so _contended, _swimming around the ocean endlessly. Maybe something like we were before we discovered plane space, just slowly wandering through space looking for new worlds."

"I'm sure they've got their share of problems. You said the jungle is a battlefield, so is the ocean."

She looked at him and smiled. "That's fine, they were enjoying a respite from the battle just like we are. And perhaps they needed a lunch break just like we do."

"It's too bad they never saw you catch fish with your bare hands, they might have been impressed."

"Maybe they would have seen me as a competitor for their food and been less friendly."

"I'd like to see one of them try and take a fish from you."

"Idiot, I would just give it to them. The fish we eat come from Emery's farm."

Lafiel's face fell a bit. She looked pensively over the ocean, the rain streaming down her. Jinto put a hand on her shoulder. "Lafiel, what is it?"

She looked at him awkwardly. "Jinto, I have to tell you something. Yesterday I embarrassed Emery in front of her friends. I took a recreational drug that I should have declined, and I ended up saying some very outrageous things. They were very good about it, but I know it was awkward for her."

"You must have seen by now that folks here are very forgiving of things done under the influence. As long as it wasn't something dangerous or vindictive, I'm sure there are no bad feelings."

"I'm sure you're right," she said softly. She smiled a little. "I know this is very selfish of me to say after the fact, but I'd like for us to declare a general amnesty regarding any embarrassing acts committed while we are on the island. We came here to enjoy ourselves, there is no point worrying about every minor transgression or misunderstanding we stumble into."

"I'm all in favor of that," Jinto said happily.

"Then it's agreed."

"In the spirit of full disclosure, I have my own confession. I ran into an old girlfriend when I was on our island circuit, we-"

"Yes, I know."

Jinto froze up. His mind went into a paralyzing loop between a long set of insoluble questions like how did she know and why wasn't she mad and why should she be and what should he say.

Lafiel doubled over and laughed uncontrollably, holding her stomach, rocking back and forth. After a while she was able to speak again. "I really did not think you would treat an amnesty as an opportunity to confess what you are being pardoned for."

Jinto was too relieved to feel wounded. "So I have been pardoned?"

She smiled impishly. "Which part of 'amnesty' did you not understand?"

Jinto returned her smile. "I see you have been picking up the local vernacular."

"I am doing my best to blend in."

Emery's head suddenly appeared between them as she leaned down from the stern deck. "Lunch is ready, you two." Her smiling face turned to Jinto. "So, you want to share the joke?"

"Sorry, that falls under a general amnesty."

"And I found out my speculation was correct," Lafiel added. "I am quite relieved, actually."

"Then it's all good. Let's eat."

# # # #

After dinner with the family, as promised Lafiel followed Mari to her studio. She had been here with Jinto before, when Mari showed them her many paintings and drawings. A few of the landscape paintings were in a style that was very familiar to Lafiel. All Abh space habitats and ships were liberally decorated with landscape paintings, and Mari had done many under commission. Lafiel had found out that one of the paintings in her own father's collections had been done by Mari.

Many of the other paintings were in styles Lafiel had never seen. Her reactions to them had varied. Many were entirely abstract, something she knew was popular among other Abh families. Lafiel would regard these intently but always had the feeling that she must be missing the point. Some other paintings were more approachable, actually showing something concrete, but only as vague impressions rather than as detailed reproductions of a scene. Others rendered scenes almost entirely in shape, with color only being hinted at with small accents, barely visible.

Today, Mari slid aside a panel that Lafiel had not even been aware was an opening and led her into a room Lafiel had not seen before. The walls and partitions were covered with her works, as in the previous room. The thing Lafiel could see right away was that they were all monochrome.

"This is the medium I do most of my work in now," Mari said. "I no longer do commissions for Abh nobility, so I am free to concentrate on something other than paintings and sculpture." She smiled. "My endurance is not what it used to be, and these take less time and strength."

"My first thought was that these were all unfinished works," Lafiel said. "But looking more closely at some, I can see I was mistaken."

"These are all ink, pencil or charcoal. They are not used much for decorating space habitats, where the intent is much the same as it is for gardens, to add color and detail to a more sterile environment."

Mari showed her the collection on display. There was a much greater variety of subject matter, with more emphasis on portraits. Some she recognized. "This looks like Emery."

"Yes, when she was twelve. It was a chore getting her to sit still long enough." Lafiel could almost feel the contained energy roiling under the peaceful scene of a young girl in a dress sitting on a stool. In her eyes was the eagerness to be set free and continue her headlong run to the future.

There was a face portrait that struck her, thought it was not anyone she recognized. It was a lander man of middle years, with a great mane of curly hair and piercing eyes in a wrinkled face. His gaze was gentle and intimate, Lafiel somehow had the feeling it was directed at the artist. "This is also somebody you know?"

"Indeed, this is one of the few drawings I did of Ernst."

Lafiel felt she should have guessed. "This is your husband? From your many stories he sounds like an interesting man, I regret that I will never meet him."

Mari smiled. "He was another difficult subject, always very restless. The fault was not all his though, I had to fight the desire to show everyone the handsomest man in the galaxy."

"Did you ever do any of Jinto?" The question came out before Lafiel could even think of why she was asking.

"Only the one. I never displayed it, out of deference to his delicate circumstance. Would you like to see it?"

"If it is convenient for you."

Mari led her to a large cabinet and slid out the drawer. It was full of sketch boards stored standing up at an angle. She flipped through a few, pulled one out and set it in on a stand that sat on top of the cabinet.

Lafiel's heart skipped a beat. She was transported eight years back. She had been walking through the lobby of the space elevator that hung over the main continent of this planet, looking for the man she was charged with escorting to her ship. She had found him standing by himself, waiting quietly. He was dressed in the formal robes of an Abh noble, as she had been told he would. But in no other way had he been what she was expecting. He looked in every way like a lost kitten. Lafiel had approached him even though she had seriously thought he must be the wrong person.

The ink drawing was of a boy two or three years younger than the man she had met. She could imagine him sitting obediently as he had been told while Mari worked her magic. He was sitting in repose wearing slacks and a shirt, rather than standing in white robes, but the face was the same. He looked at Mari the same way he had looked at Lafiel when she approached him. Perhaps at this time Mari was somebody he had just met, or somebody he could barely communicate with. His eyes quietly asked the question. Are you the one who has found me? Are you the one who will lead me from here? Lafiel's eye now could fill in the background she had been missing then. He was a boy who had been ripped from his home, from the only family he had ever known, and shipped off by people he did not know to an alien world where nobody even spoke his language. Here he sat, a complete innocent, trying to be brave, trying to understand what was happening, trying to do what was required of him. The young cadet who came to collect him had seen in him a vague anxiety she could put no name to. Looking at those eyes now, the longing was clear as day. All he wanted was a home and a family.

Lafiel came back to herself. She must have been looking at the sketch for minutes. "You have captured him perfectly," she said in a quiet, thick voice.

Mari's tiny smile was full of understanding. "Would you like to keep the sketch?"

"You mean... the original?" Mari nodded. Lafiel's lip trembled just a little. "I... would be ever so grateful, Mari. Thank you."

Mari set the sketch aside and they walked to the studio proper. There were a few sketches on the walls, but this was clearly a work room. Lafiel was surprised to see that there were no windows. "I had been told that even for portraits or still life, artists prefer natural light."

"That is just a bit of romance, My Lady. Since the diaspora the term 'natural light' is quite meaningless. There are a thousand worlds orbiting a thousand stars, each with its own spectra profile." Her smile now had a bit of mischief. "Besides, there are some subjects for which locked doors and closed windows are of benefit. Are you still okay to sit for a portrait?"

"Yes, of course." It was for that very reason Mari had requested Lafiel accompany her today.

"Don't worry, a charcoal sketch takes much less time than a painting, we'll have you out of here in no time."

"Please take all the time you need."

"Thank you, My Lady." She turned to walk to where she had set up a stool and sketch board in front of a raised platform. Her arm came up in a casual gesture towards an armchair. "You can just leave your clothes right there," she said as she walked past it. As Lafiel parsed that statement, it registered on her consciousness that most of the portraits on display here were nudes. "Your tiara as well, My Lady," Mari called from where she was setting up her implements.

"Oh. Yes, of course." Just a few minutes ago Lafiel might have raised some objection to this new development, but right now that was really unthinkable. As she unbuttoned her blouse, it occurred to her that Mari was somebody who knew how to get exactly what she wanted from her subjects.

# # # #

"We're all done," Mari said. "I'm sorry that took longer than I thought, you are such an intriguing subject."

"Not at all. May I see it?"

"Perhaps you would like to get dressed first," Mari suggested.

"Yes, thank you," Lafiel said quickly. A while back it had stopped registering on her that she was not wearing anything. She scooted over to the edge of the padded platform, stood and stretched.

"One reason I've always wanted to sketch an Abh is I've heard your muscle control is extraordinary. You really did not move one bit the entire time. Pardon me for taking full advantage of that."

"It was no trouble," Lafiel assured her. "You did the hard work." She had in fact been quite comfortable. She noticed that Mari was working her own fingers and wrists. Lafiel found herself wondering what sort of mobility deficits and discomfort aged landers had to contend with.

When Lafiel was done dressing, Mari was seated in another of the armchairs near her work stool. She looked tired but satisfied. Lafiel walked over to have a look at the drawing. Her first reaction was relief. Mari had been meticulously specific in her instructions on how to pose. Lafiel's legs were drawn up in front of her crossed at the ankes and her arms crossed over her legs, with hands resting on knee and upper arm. As Lafiel had hoped, not much more was showing than when she wore her swimsuit. It was her own expression that really surprised Lafiel. Mari had spent even more time telling Lafiel what to be thinking of and what to imagine than she had telling her how to position herself. The key point was that she was to be anticipating a happy reunion with an old friend with whom she would be sharing a secret, one they would both cherish. There was the look of contentment and mild anticipation Lafiel had felt she was projecting, but she had not expected her look to be so... inviting. Longing. Unguarded. She was naked in a way that had nothing to do with a lack of clothing. No hologram could have exposed her in this fashion.

When she finally shifted her gaze to Mari, the woman was waiting serenely. Like her son, she was comfortable giving people the time they needed. "It is extraordinary. I feel that much more than my clothing has been stripped away. I should be uncomfortable looking at this drawing, but I am not. I was not expecting what I see, but I see only truth. That really is me."

"It is an image, My Lady," Mari said. Whatever he words, her expression said that she very much appreciated Lafiel's praise. "I could make a hundred more and they would all still only show some small parts of what you are. Only people who know you would really understand what it is that I got a glimpse of today. I hope you like the result."

"I do, very much." A question occurred to her. "What... are you going to do with it?"

Mari's smile took on that familiar look of playful irony. "Your pardon, My Lady, I will be happy to give you a reproduction but I intend to keep the original. Don't worry, it will be treated with the same discretion as the picture of Jinto I have been keeping. Strictly for family viewing."

Lafiel smiled a little awkwardly. "My thanks on both counts."

Mari poured them drinks and they sat in armchairs, surrounded by her private collection. Most of the models depicted were a good deal more exposed than Lafiel had been, at least in a physical sense. One in particular had a woman lounging on a bed with arms and legs spread wide, with a smile that was much more explicitly and fiercely inviting than Lafiel's had been. Mari seemed to notice Lafiel's gaze linger there. "Does that woman look familiar?"

"Yes." In a moment Lafiel had it. "Is that Shyori?"

"Well spotted, My Lady, from across the room too. I did that soon after she and Emery were girlfriends. It was a birthday present for Emery, but she lets me keep the original here. Would you like to go take a closer look?"

Lafiel felt a blush come to her cheeks. "Perhaps later."

"Sorry, I wasn't teasing you. I know it's not the sort of portrait Abh are used to seeing."

"I know you weren't, it's not that. At our swim party I said some rather lewd things to Shyori while under the influence of pica root."

"Oh dear," Mari said, not losing her smile. "I wouldn't worry about it, as you can see Shyori is not easily embarrassed."

Lafiel smiled. "If you had posed me like that, you would have been busy shading in the blush on my cheeks."

"I suspect I would have seen your back as you stalked out of here."

"Now you are teasing me. I'm sure you know that after giving me that picture of Jinto you could pose me in any way you please."

"I make it a rule never to overdraw from any gratitude account."

"Nonsense, I am still in your debt for both the old and new pictures. From what you said giving birthday gifts is a custom here." She grinned. "Do you have a birthday coming up? Perhaps I could use that as an excuse."

"No, My Lady, the only birthday I can think that is coming up soon is my husband's."

"Really? If you were planning a memorial, please do not let our presence here dissuade you. I never had the pleasure of meeting Ernst, but it would be an honor to attend his memorial dinner."

Mari looked a bit puzzled for a moment, then her knowing smile returned. "We do not have that custom, My Lady. Most Imperial citizens know about it, but it is only really practiced among the nobility. Does that surprise you?"

"To be honest, it does. Ernst was not nobility, but only by choice, his accomplishments were legion. From my perspective, he deserves to have his legacy honored and remembered."

"We feel the same way, My Lady. For me, every day is a memorial to him. Everything you see around you is what he and I worked for. And more importantly, my children and grandchildren are his memorial. We need no other." She smiled. "But I think the real reason is that a memorial dinner could easily turn into a disaster."

"How so?"

"If we started relating stories of Ernst, it's practically certain that somebody would start crying. That would just get the rest of us going, and in no time we would all be crying."

"I'm sorry, my question was insensitive. I forgot he only died three years ago."

"Oh, we are not still in mourning, My Lady," Mari said. "Our generations pass more quickly than yours do, we have to learn to move on after losing somebody. For those who knew Ernst, there is no danger of us ever forgetting him, that would be impossible. Even years from now we would need no birthday memorial for him, it would probably still just make us all cry."

Lafiel thought about that for a bit. "I cried when I found out that my gene donor – my mother, had died in battle. I still miss her. But I never cried at any of her memorial dinners. I wonder why."

"Perhaps because you are proud of her, My Lady. Perhaps for you that pride is enough to let you put your sadness to rest."

Lafiel nodded. "I think you are right. For us, that is enough." But she could not shake the feeling that it should not be enough.

# # # #

"Well look, the mighty hunters return," Emery heard Shyori say from the lounge chair next to hers.

Emery looked up from her book reader. Sure enough, she could see in the distance Lafiel and Jinto climbing down the path at the point where it went across open ground. Soon Geith and dad emerged behind them. "Looks like she got something." A couple of birds were hanging across Lafiel's shoulder, following the kill it carry it rule.

"That's good to see," Chisha said from her own lounge chair. "She was really pumped up about it."

"Too right," Emery said. She had passed on this particular day trip. After days of keeping up with that living whirlwind, a day hanging at the poolside with Shyori and Chisha was a very appealing option. The pool and deck at the back of the house had been getting little use since their guests had arrived. "Bless her heart she does not take defeat lightly."

"Guess this means it's bird for dinner tonight," Shyori said. "Or the appetizer anyway, depending on what they bagged. Do we feel like climbing up the hill to meet them halfway?"

"No, we don't," Emery said. She picked up the bottom of Shyori's bikini from where it lay and dropped it strategically on her. "But you do feel like putting something on."

"It's nothing they haven't seen before."

Emery picked up Shyori's top and deposited that onto her, also strategically. "Nothing _my _family hasn't seen, you shameless trollop."

Shyori grinned. "I just wanted to show her that they're real."

"She's already acknowledged they are, let it go."

Shyori dutifully put her bathing suit back on. "Emery, did your gaydar ever register anything with her?"

"Nope, not a bit. You?"

Shyori giggled. "More like the opposite. When she was tripping on pica root, she was eying my tits like the only thing she cared about was guessing their mass and density. It was sort of disappointing, she's really hot." She sat back down in her chair. "Maybe she'd like to cop a feel just for interest sake, I'd kind of like that."

"Just remember these are _mine _now!" Emery pounced.

Shyori squealed. "Okay, stop, stop! I'll be good, I promise, I promise!"

"Would you two like to get a room?" Chisha asked, not even looking up from her book reader.

Having made her point, Emery lay back down in her lounge chair. She held Shyori's hand. "I'm still not sure whether to be sorry for Jinto or think he's the luckiest guy in the galaxy."

"Life with that girl can't be simple, that's for sure," Shyori said. "Hey, if your dad had taken a peerage, would you have turned out like her?"

"I doubt there's anybody else who's turned out quite like her. Those United Mankind assholes kept telling everyone that the Abh were all the same, but could you imagine a council of Lafiels running the Empire?"

"Scary. Still, you'd look hot in blue hair. Would you wear a wig and be my Abh fantasy proxy?"

Emery sighed and kissed Shyori's hand. "Anything for you, dear."

Shortly the hunting party filed onto the deck, Lafiel in the lead. She appeared to be full of energy, the men just all looked dirty and tired. On closer inspection she could see that Jinto had also met some success, though Lafiel definitely had the lion's share of the catch. Geith was carrying much of the gear and dad had the blowgun. "Welcome back," Emery called from her chair. "Thanks for bringing us dinner."

"Yes, we've worked up such an appetite lying here," Shyori said.

"It's my pleasure," Lafiel said with the same hint of irony. She did look quite pleased with herself.

"I wasn't going to believe it until I saw it with my own eyes," Shyori said. "My Lady, was it really your idea to mount a laser sight on the blowgun?"

"Yes, Thom did much of the work mounting it," Lafiel explained. "I mostly adapted the targeting software."

Shyori did not look impressed. "With respect, laser-guided blowguns sounds too much like a guy thing."

"You mean something only men would do? I am still mystified by your notion of gender roles."

"My Lady, I date girls-"

"_A _girl," Emery corrected.

"_A _girl, and I build my own boats, I live for breaking gender roles. But I draw the line at modding weapons."

"Interesting, I wonder if this explains why so few lander women join the Space Force?"

"Before you try and solve that problem," Chisha said, "You all might want to go take a shower."

"Great idea, honey," Geith said, bending to kiss his wife. "I think everyone agrees."

A while later, a much cleaner Lafiel returned by herself and continued her debate with Shyori without missing a beat. Lafiel really seemed to want to know why such an energetic woman had no interest in shooting things. Suddenly it looked like some idea had come to her. "Shyori, Emery, could I ask you a rather personal question? You need not answer if you wish."

Shyori crossed her arms across her chest. "As long as you don't want to know by bust size, I'm sensitive about that."

Lafiel smiled, taking the joke for what it was. "I was just wondering if you are thinking of having children some day."

"We've talked about it," Emery said. "We might."

"We would have to flip to see who bears the first one," Shyori quipped.

That seemed to catch Lafiel's interest. "So you would combine your genes and one of you would give natural birth to each child?"

"Yes, that's what we would do," Emery said.

"That is pretty much universal on Delktou, My Lady," Chisha said, smiling and pointing to her own distended stomach under the maternity dress.

"That's what I thought, Chisha. Until I met you I had not really appreciated how pregnancy hinders mobility."

"Oh, it's not as bad as it looks, I can get around well enough."

"Yes, but you would have trouble doing anything strenuous," Lafiel pointed out.

"I don't know, I've seen some of the old blood islander women do pretty crazy things even just before they're going to pop," Shyori said. "Diving, wind surfing, you name it."

"But a female peace officer or soldier would be exempt from active duty when she was with child, would she not?"

"Yes, she would," Chisha said. "My prenatal care worker asked me all sorts of questions about what I do for fun and profit."

"That would make it very difficult for women of child-bearing years to take on those jibs. If you used a birthing chamber, wouldn't that solve the problem?" Lafiel asked.

"It's not quite so simple," Chisha said. "Bearing a child takes a few months, raising one takes years."

"We raise our own children too, but that can be done by either gender. I was raised by my father."

"It's the same here," Chisha said. "There are all sorts of laws and institutions ensuring that people of either gender can get the support they need while they raise their children and then return to their careers if they wish. It just usually ends up being done by women. Artificial birthing chambers really wouldn't change that."

"That is what I find so perplexing," Lafiel said.

"I think you're asking the wrong sex," Shyori said, waving her hands to indicate the company that consisted of women only. "We'll have to take this up with the guys."

"People have been talking for two thousand years about why more men like to shoot things and more women like to raise children," Emery said. "For all the talk, in most places those two facts haven't changed much."

"And for the record, I still think guns are a guy thing," Shyori said. "Sorry, but if you want to shoot things you'll have to leave us behind and go out with the boys again."

Lafiel smiled. "That's fine, I equally enjoy the company of men."

Shyori laughed. "You can be sure the feeling is mutual! Three men just spent a day crawling through the mud so that you could shoot birds."

"I'm sure they enjoyed it as much as I did."

Shyori sighed. "Sad, but true."

Emery noted Chisha move her hands over her stomach in a way she now recognized. "Chisha, did he kick?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Really?" Shyori said brightly. "My Lady, come over here quick!" She got up and went to crouch down beside where Chishu was lying back in her chair. Looking a bit puzzled, Lafiel got up and walked over to crouch down at her other side. Emery also walked over but stood aside.

Chisha took Lafiel's hand and guided it to a place on her abdomen. "Feel there and wait." Lafiel looked a bit uncomfortable but did what she was told. After a moment her eyebrows came up. "I did feel something move. That must feel odd, I mean from the inside."

"The first time he did that I just about jumped," Chisha said.

Lafiel smiled warmly and took her hand away. "You seem to be used to it now, but you must be looking forward to having him your arms instead."

"I am certainly looking forward to being lighter."

After a while they went over to the table to play cards. Lafiel had just learned the game, but as with everything she was a quick study and a focused player. She was always a good sport but Emery could tell that she took every mistake she made seriously. She would always apologize to her partner when she lost a trick for them. She did seem more relaxed in the past few days, not beating herself up quite as she had been before. Emery suspected that she and Jinto had spoken and had held a mutual confessional. Still, there was no mistaking Lafiel as somebody who had always had much expected of her and expected even better from herself. Emery had an idea how she felt, her own parents had always expected her to live up to a high standard and that had stuck with her. But to be a scion of the Abriel clan would take that to a new level. If Emery could provide a rare venue where Lafiel could relax for a while, she was very happy about that.

It was also good to see Lafiel smiling more, Emery could watch that dazzling smile all day. _Got to admit Shyori's right, she is steaming hot._

While Emery was shuffling, Lafiel's wristband chimed. "Your pardon," she said, reading the message. She frowned. Her whole manner changed in the span of a moment. She looked angry and alarmed, her hackles were up. The others picked up on it too, and there was silence at the table. Lafiel turned off the display window, but still said nothing, looking very pensive.

"My Lady, have you received some bad news?" Emery asked softly. From the look on Lafiel's face she was expecting to hear of anything from a sudden death in the family to a catastrophic defeat in the war.

Lafiel shook her head. "No, not bad news." She looked at Emery with a grim expression. "A dinner invitation."

# # # #

Lafiel used the beach house to change into her formal robes, to minimize the distance she would need to walk in the heat to the cruiser. She had politely declined Emery's offer to help her dress. Unlike islander formal wear, Imperial formal wear was very familiar to her, putting it on a ritual done without thinking. Besides, having her friend involved in this matter even in a trivial way felt wrong.

Ranef Duben, second son of Duke Ranef, 138 years old. That much Lafiel had already known, that much could be found in the listings of Abh family lineages. Lafiel knew nothing more and had learned nothing more. Over these past days she had come to forget that he was supposed to be living just a few miles from where she was staying. His dinner invitation had been as brief as it was excruciatingly polite, but in one respect it had explained much... and little.

He had signed himself Hecto-Commander, Imperial Intelligence Services. The certification key on the message confirmed it as genuinely from an active-duty officer.

Unlike the Space Force combat units, the service records of intelligence service officers was not a matter of public record. Only Emperors, ex-Emperors and flag officers in the Space Force could request any information on their activities. Not even Lafiel's authority as a representative of the Abriel clan gave her that privilege. She had no idea what an officer of the Intelligence Service was doing on Moruweka island and no way of finding out.

Ranef Duben, on the other hand, knew very much about what Lafiel was doing here. His message had been encrypted so that only her personal wristband with biometric confirmation could decrypt it, but the text header had been addressed to the Kamrau household and the obligatory apology had referred to disturbing her furlough. None of that was necessarily unusual, Lafiel had been obligated to register her travel plans with the Space Force, which would have been forwarded to Intelligence. But unless Ranef were making specific inquiries for the information, there should have been no reason for his being aware of her presence here. Her wristband would be just an anonymous node on the local network, Ranef must have received his information from the headquarters in Lakfakalle.

Two other things had disturbed and angered Lafiel even more. If Ranef knew she was here then he would also know Jinto was here, yet the message made no mention of him at all. The text also made no mention of her hosts, even though it had been directed to their home. The implied message was clear enough in both cases, they were not being invited. Lafiel felt insulted on her friends' behalf, but the implications of this oversight were more disturbing. Ranef had to know that with this slight he had risked insulting an Abriel, not something to be done lightly by anyone. A senior intelligence officer with a century-long career had found a reason that would justify offending her and then inviting her to talk over dinner. Whatever the reason, because of the deep links between their clans turning down the invitation was not an option. Lafiel's text response had been equally concise but courteous, indicating the suggested time and date would be fine.

Lafiel touched the wall, and the opaque windows went transparent. The cruiser floated in its cradle, waiting for her. She could see Geith at the deck helm and Thom waiting at the pier. She had wanted to rent a water taxi but Thom would have none of it. On the other hand, Thom had insisted only he and his son would accompany her on the short trip out to the House on the Hill. Lafiel agreed that was best.

She opened the door and stepped out into the hot, humid afternoon air that she was now acclimatized to and had even learned to appreciate. Today it felt oppressive, and that had little to do with the heavy robes she wore. She walked quickly out to the cruiser. Thom nodded in greeting and escorted her up the gangplank straight into the enclosed cabin. He raised the plank and closed the door behind them. Just a moment later, Geith was working the jets and getting them underway.

Thom sat down with Lafiel in the lounge. He was no longer hiding the look of grim wariness she had only seen hints of earlier. As far as the rest of the family was concerned, Lafiel was only upset about the implied insult to her hosts and the prospect of an awkward dinner with a pompous recluse. But Thom clearly knew better. The soldier now addressed her with the cold precision of laser targeting. "My Lady, there is something I should tell you. Moruweka is not the first place that I met Hecto-Commander Ranef Duben."

So he did know Ranef's rank. Lafiel did not bother asking if he also knew Ranef was in intelligence, of course he would know. "You met him when you were in counter-insurgency." It was a statement, not a question.

"More precisely, he conducted one of the exit interviews I had to do when I handed in my resignation and retired from the service. Most of it was routine. But he also wanted to know in great detail why I was turning down the offer of a peerage."

Lafiel wondered about that. "Such a question is not the province of the Intelligence branch."

"Normally it is not. But for any of the forces that do investigative work in collaboration with them, Intelligence has special privileges allowing them to ask pretty much whatever they want to. I was very frank with him, I gave him pretty much the same reasons that I gave you when you asked about it. But there was one more thing he insisted on my telling him. He wanted to know what it would take for me to change my mind."

Lafiel frowned. "Was he promising or threatening anything?"

"No, he emphasized it was all hypothetical. But he made it clear that he was not going to let me go until he got a serious answer. So I gave him one. I told him I would accept a peerage if I got to decide whether or not any of my kids got genetic enhancements. But that just led to the new question, what would it take for me to change my mind and have all my children receive the Abh enhancements. By that time I really wanted to bring the interview to an end, so I gave him this answer." Thom leaned forward and his face transformed in a way that made the hair stand up on the back of Lafiel's neck. His voice was no longer the respectful one of a soldier addressing a friend and compatriot but the vitriolic one of a master addressing an imbecilic subordinate. "I would change my mind if I could give my kids pink hair because I think that blue hair looks really, really, really _fucking _stupid."

Thom leaned back and his scowl melted into an easy smile. "He didn't like that one bit, but he did thank me for answering all his questions."

Lafiel blinked. "Thom, you have almost succeeded in making me feel a little sympathy for this man."

Thom laughed out loud. "For the record you have beautiful hair."

"Thank you."

He continued in a more serious tone. "I've met Ranef at a couple of town meetings in the past years. He was all little smiles and polite inquiries about the family's health, you know the routine. I've had no other contact from him nor from anyone else in Intelligence. I still have no idea what he was getting at. Maybe he's doing his own research, wants to write a book. Who knows."

"It does seem a bit too much of a coincidence that he is virtually your neighbor."

"Not necessarily. He actually moved in here before my dad did. It was quite the little land grab going on back then, people from all over were arriving. You'd be surprised how far and wide some of the folks here came from, literally right across the galaxy."

Lafiel stroked her chin, thinking on that. "It could be that your name came up as somebody living near him and he took notice, intelligence work is about fishing for associations after all. Or for all we know his job used to be conducting all these interviews."

"Whatever the case, he does have some reason to remember me."

Lafiel had been assuming Ranef's interest was in her, but she was not so certain now. She regarded Thom closely. "Thom, if Ranef wants to use me to exact some retribution against you or your family, I assure you that is not going to happen. I promise that any move against you will bring down the righteous wrath of the Abriel in all its fury."

Thom chuckled lightly. "Before you start smiting please check your targets, this is a small island."

"I know you have only met Ranef briefly, but what was your impression of him?"

"I'm probably one of the few people who was able to break his poker face in recent years, I'll bet he's more upset about than than anything I actually said. You said I have three reasons for everything I do, I'd wager he's got at least seven reasons for everything he does. He doesn't do his work just because he's ordered to, I think his work is his life. You could see it in his eyes, he wants to know _everything. _A piece of information denied to him is an affront." He leaned forward slightly. "And those hungry eyes were _old. _He's been hunting secrets for a very, very long time."

Lafiel let that sink in. "It's a good bet he is not living here just for the scenery."

"From his perspective this would be a pretty boring place."

"Maybe that's the point. Concentrate on what he is doing, avoid both distraction and scrutiny." Lafiel shook her head. "I can't let him send me running in circles of speculation before we have even met. Thank you for this, Thom."

He nodded. "You know I'm at your service."

"Yes, I do," Lafiel said gratefully. They continued in silence while Lafiel digested what little information she had. She resolved that the anger she had entered the boat with would remain here. _This man does not outrank you but he is your senior five times over. He cannot be bullied __or provoked. If he wants something from you, then you must listen and understand why. Watch, listen, learn._

Looking out the window, Lafiel could see that they were turning in towards the shore again. The boat intercom chimed. "This is Geith. I'm getting an auto-docking handshake signal. This guy's got his own umbilical. My Lady, you won't even need to come up on deck."

"Thank you, Geith," Lafiel called to the intercom. She and Thom got up and moved to the debarkation door just behind the lower cockpit. Its display was slaved to the open cockpit up top, Lafiel could see it flashing the sign for hands-off operation. Geith's usual smooth seat-of-the-pants docking gave way to a turnkey set of precise, mechanical moves. Lafiel's lips pursed. She did not approve, this seemed like an affront both to the ocean and to their beautiful boat. She looked out the panoramic window that faced the shore. Sure enough, as soon as the boat was anchored at the pier, a glass-sided umbilical emerged from the cliff. It angled down to the side of the boat and a green light came on over the door.

"We'll be here at the appointed time," Thom said.

Thankfully he knew enough not to wish her a pleasant dinner. Lafiel smiled. "Don't be late, I wish to return to your company as quickly as possible."

"The feeling is mutual."

Lafiel opened the door and walked up the sloped umbilical to another door which slid open for her. There was a bare corridor lit by rows of lamps, presumably it did dual duty as sleeve for the umbilical. At its end was yet another door which slid open.

The man standing the correct distance behind the door wore the correct white formal robes of Abh nobility, very similar to her own. She recognized the Ranef family emblem. The man was unremarkable in every way, medium height and build, wavy medium blue hair worn to moderate but practical length, a pleasant face with a friendly smile.

_So he has come to greet me himself. _She had expected no less, but still she was a little disappointed. Had he sent some lackey she would have been justified in marching straight back to the boat and sending a letter to the Duke protesting his son's rudeness.

The man saluted. "Welcome, Highness. I am Ranef Duben, Hecto-Commander, Imperial Intelligence Service."

Their wristbands had already done the handshake of biometric-validated keys, he was who he said he was. Lafiel held her poker face and saluted. "Greetings, Excellency," she said pleasantly. "I am Abriel Debrusc Lafiel, Vicountess of Paryun, Hecto-commander, Twelfth Fleet. Thank you for your invitation. May I enter?"

"By all means, please do." He stepped aside in the correct fashion and Lafiel stepped across the threshold. The lobby was of modest size but richly appointed and tastefully decorated. It could have been the entrance to the estate of a family in the capital. At the back of the lobby there was an open elevator that he now led her towards. "I have made a very unreasonable request, calling you away from your old friend and your hosts during your furlough. Thank you for indulging me."

_Apologetic, but not cloying. In all things, he being correct to a fault. _"As you can imagine, I have been wondering why I in particular merited an invitation. Did my father ask you to look out for me?"

"No, I only met your father briefly years ago. My motive was entirely selfish. Your career in the Space Force has been a remarkable one. I have wanted to meet you for a long time, I simply could not pass up the opportunity."

"If you have been following my career then you have the advantage on me."

"I'm afraid my own career has been much less visible. At the academy did you use the text 'Interpretation of Signal Intelligence in Plane Space' in the comm tech course?"

"Of course, it's required reading on the command track."

Ranef smiled apologetically. "Unless you took the intelligence track that text is the only accomplishment of mine you are likely to encounter. I'm sure you remember how dull it was, I like to think that I am at least a little more interesting than it would suggest."

_Self-deprecating but not obsequious. Again, correct to a fault. _"I thought that your text made a difficult subject very approachable," Lafiel said, meaning it. She found that her smile was not forced. "Your suggestion to trust your instinct when interpreting incomplete data might very well have saved me once."

Ranef looked pleased. "Really?" He gestured for her to precede him into the elevator. "I would like to hear about that."

The elevator took them up and opened directly onto a dining room. Again, the scale was modest but the decoration was exceptional. When she asked about a painting whose style looked familiar, Ranef confirmed that it had been done by Kamrau Mari. There was room here for a large table, but if there was one it had been removed in place of a smaller more intimate table placed nearer to the picture window. The view was spectacular, a brand new perspective on the bay that Lafiel had come to love. Seeing this from inside a traditional Abh dining hall made Lafiel doubly comfortable. Two Abh servants stood waiting for them. When they had silently assisted Ranef and Lafiel to their seats, Ranef ordered drinks and they continued to talk. He was not lying about having followed her career, he knew much and wanted to know more. His questions were probing and insightful, always making Lafiel think about why she had made a particular decision instead of another in the field. He was not interested in the decision itself but in what went behind it. He was always asking questions that Lafiel had not considered but in retrospect made sense, always making her think. She scarcely noticed as servants silently brought in new courses at wide intervals.

Lafiel appreciated having a good listener, but was getting a bit tired of talking about herself. "Excellency, I am guessing you had some combat experience yourself."

"I was comm officer on a cruiser that saw action twice." He smiled. "They were both small, obscure battles nearly a hundred years ago, I assure you that you have never heard of either. It was the second one that really gave me an appreciation of the limits of signal intelligence. Being a brash young tech officer with some combat experience I thought I could waltz into the intelligence branch, rewrite the book on how it is supposed to be done and show those eggheads what for. After a few years I did end up rewriting some of the texts. But I only succeeded in introducing a more pessimistic assessment of what we can learn of enemy intentions from the electromagnetic rays we bounce off them or from listening to whatever they choose to transmit."

"A more realistic assessment, I would say," Lafiel ventured.

"Perhaps so. Nevertheless, I was somewhat disillusioned. I took on some other assignments and started to learn more about work being done within the established realms of the Empire. Most of your career has been after hostilities with the Triple Alliance broke out. In the decades before then we had come into conflict with and conquered some interstellar nations. But in my day a lot of the operations of the Space Force were really just shows of force within the Empire. Our fleet would show up in a particular system, orbit a planet for a while, then go home. It was usually in response to some suspected or actual insurrection or instability, and only rarely required actual shots to be fired. I began to take an interest in how these trouble spots were being identified, where the information was coming from." His eyes lit up in a way that Lafiel had not yet seen yet. "The answer was, it can come from just about anywhere! Of course you are familiar with the rules we impose upon territorial governments regarding cooperation with the Space Force recruitment offices."

Lafiel nodded. Anyone in the Empire knew that. When any system became part of the Empire, they agreed to allow the Space Force to establish a recruitment office and that the territorial government not interfere with its operation or with territorial citizens who want to contact it. It was the second of the only two restrictions placed on territorial authorities, the first being never to break the Imperial government's monopoly on interstellar travel.

"It is a simple rule but verifying that it is being followed is not so simple. We require full access to all public communications networks within the territory, with the ability both to monitor it and to send out messages of our own."

"That would make sense," Lafiel agreed. "Otherwise they could prevent or penalize contact with the office without our even knowing."

Ranef nodded. "Any civilized world has a global comm network, so in practice this means that the recruitment office becomes a node in that network. Once interstellar trade with the planet gets under way, that node essentially becomes a hub through which all messages going to ships passing through the local Gate are relayed. Our monopoly on interstellar travel is also a monopoly on all communications between worlds."

Lafiel was puzzled. "I'm not sure I see how that would help you identify trouble in a territory."

"By itself it does not. But as well as recruiting for the Space Force, our recruitment offices also do much to encourage all territorial citizens to pursue career and commercial opportunities on other worlds in the Empire. We provide a great deal of information in this regard, including contacts for making further inquiries. A surprising number of citizens do make such inquiries, far more than actually end up pursuing work outside their territory. That always leaves a digital signal, if nothing else a location on the local network. That can easily be cross-referenced with local traffic."

"I understand we can monitor all data being exchanged through our ships," Lafiel said. "But most private communications within planetary networks would be encrypted."

"That is true. But every message still leaves a signature on the network when it passes through each hub. We know who exchanged messages with whom, when and how often. And you would be surprised how much seemingly private business gets discussed in publicly available network spaces. Very few people have the same concern with privacy that we do. Landers are particularly fond of expressing displeasure for authorities in public forums. That becomes another datum in a picture that can identify potential trouble spots."

Lafiel knew that such monitoring of local networks was being done, but she was learning more about the extent and scale of it. "There are more than a thousand billion people in the Empire and most of them are using networks every day, the sheer volume must be daunting."

"We have been doing it for centuries, but analysis of the data is still as much art as science. Much of it is left to the local offices since they have culture-specific expertise. But we still do a lot of work on the aggregated data looking for general trends. My own specialty has become tracing familial relations. A surprising amount of political activity on lander worlds takes place within extended families. Even in democratic institutions family dynasties are very common."

"But is that really different from the Abh government?" Lafiel asked, genuinely curious. "Clan association is the very basis of authority in the Empire."

The indulgent look on Ranef's face suggested this was an elementary mistake he had heard made many times before. "In a very important sense it is in fact the opposite. Among the Abh, the clans exist to serve the Empire, just as the ancestors of each clan had a very specific role on the mother-ship. It is the Empire which is primary, the clan secondary. On lander worlds it is the opposite, family relations are primary and political institutions are made to serve them."

"I doubt most landers would agree," Lafiel objected. "I learned a fair bit about how democratic governments work when I was assigned to Hania during the Vensath affair. I have to say there was much in their government institutions that I found objectionable. But it was clear they prided themselves on how their government owed no loyalty to particular people or their chosen successors. All offices were open to all candidates."

"That is the theory and the declared intent, Highness. The reality is much different. For most landers, their first loyalty is always to their family. When I speak of family I mean it in the most general terms. Biological parentage has a large role to play, but it is not always primary. In the simplest terms, a family is any small, tight-knit group of people who have a common identity and have spent years forming a network of very close bonds. Landers form and maintain these bonds far more readily than we do. The strongest of these are romantic relations which lead to lifelong pair-bonding. That usually leads to the second most important relation, that between parent and child. It is a bond that usually remains close, even long after the child has grown."

Lafiel nodded. "Living among a lander family these past weeks I have gained an appreciation of how close those bonds can be. But I am not sure I see how that translates to the political realm."

"Political factions are their own kind of families. I cannot tell you the number of times we have identified such a relation from an offhand comment like 'he is like a father to me' or 'she is like a daughter to me'. Patterns of intermarriage are a telltale. Members of such a family will often do much anything for each other, even commit treason. When groups of separatists or insurgents are found out, invariably they are people who have close relations going back generations."

Lafiel was moved to ask a question even though she was not sure she would like the answer. "Do you look for similar relations among the Abh families?"

"No." Ranef's face slowly grew into a sly smile. "My answer surprises you."

"I am interested in why you think we are so different. Is it not simply out of necessity? The Empire is our shared project, it cannot succeed unless our first loyalty is always to the Empire. We all understand that."

"You are correct. As always the real insight comes in pointing out the why of the matter. It is something so basic that we rarely even think of it. The answer is in our genes."

"You will have a hard time convincing me it is that simple. As you well know a member of the nobility betrayed me then tried to kill me."

Ranef nodded solemnly. "Baron Clasbul's unfortunate son. Certainly loyalty is not a phenotype that can be engineered into our genes, I am not suggesting any such thing. Abh can go renegade just like anyone. It rarely happens but our Space Force has had its share of mutinies staged by Abh officers." He leaned forward and looked at her intently. "But here is the key point, Highness. None of them ever committed treason because they put loyalty to family ahead of the Empire. They always acted for personal reasons. Like sociopaths, they are something that crop up here and there and it occasionally leads to unfortunate consequences. But it is not something that would develop into a conspiracy."

Lafiel thought about that for a moment. "Certainly our own family relations differ from the norm on lander worlds. Again, I have recently come to see that more clearly. But is that not just because our culture has a radically different background? We have been obliged to survive in space for a thousand years, we had to adapt or die."

"Much of that adaptation had already been engineered into us by our former masters. Have you ever looked at the text listing of your own genetic mods?"

Like all Abh, Lafiel had that file in her wristband in case it was needed to facilitate any medical intervention. "I have glanced at it a couple of times out of curiosity. It goes on for hundreds of pages."

"I would suggest that you review the section on mandatory neurotransmitter receptor knock-outs and cross-reference it with Kyuesev's Neurotransmitter Deficit and Social Relations."

Lafiel was mildly annoyed. "It seems you are leaving that as a homework assignment."

Ranef smiled apologetically. "It is not my field, you are better off reading for yourself. I think you will find it interesting, but for today could you accept the premise for argument's sake?"

"I suppose it does not really change your point, the importance of family relations in lander politics. Is your analysis used to direct our counter-insurgency operations?" Lafiel immediately regretted asking that, realizing where it might lead.

Ranef's knowing smile confirmed her fear. "I see you have been trading stories with Kamrau Thom. I'm certain he has described our exit interview to you. Please be assured I bear him no ill will, quite the contrary. I only met him a handful of times but as you suggested his work has been done in close collaboration with our own analysis. He is one of the finest officers whose work I had the opportunity to observe. That was why I was so interested in knowing what we could do to bring him into the gentry." He laughed. "You know, I was so taken aback by his answer I very nearly asked him whether hair dye would be an acceptable solution. Can you imagine what his response might have been?"

Lafiel could not help smiling. "No I can't. Do you mind if I ask him?"

"Please do! In preparation for our interview I found out all I could about his father Ernst, another very remarkable man who turned down a peerage. I'm afraid it became something of an obsession with me to find out why. I pressed Thom too hard and he made his displeasure known in a most emphatic way."

Lafiel answered in a serious, gentle tone. "His wife Mari has spoken with me about that decision. I'm certain that both her husband and her son gave us an honest answer. They feared the very things you and I have been talking about tonight, the things that make us different. They feared losing the lifelong bonds that made them want children in the first place."

Ranef nodded thoughtfully. "It is actually a common point made by other Imperial citizens I have interviewed or spoken with more informally. My division does not just look for troublemakers, the flip-side is that we spend much time looking for people with potential who might accomplish things for the Empire given the opportunity. When a peerage is offered, our input often figures prominently." He smiled. "It will probably not surprise you to learn we have our eye on Geith, a promising young man with big plans."

Lafiel was less than comfortable speaking any further about her hosts, she wanted to take conversation elsewhere. "Are you here because you expect to find many people of potential on Moruweka island?"

"No, I just like it here." He laughed at her skeptical look. "Well, I really do, but I'm sure you would never believe that is the only reason I moved here. I still do a lot of high-level analysis of long-term trends, that kind of work can be done anywhere. But I am intrigued by this enclave as a case study. It is a concentration of people who have just three things in common: they are Imperial citizens, they speak Baronh, and they decided to end their careers in the Empire to settle on a planet. I would love to know what else they have in common."

Lafiel leaned back and regarded him with narrowed eyes for a moment before speaking. "This is a beautiful island with friendly people, and it will be one of my happiest memories. But the motivations of people for coming here are quite simple, they prefer the easy company of the ocean and each other to the demanding company of the stars and the Abh. I doubt there is much here of interest for somebody whose life work is to seek out those who could either harm or help the Empire. Perhaps it is high time we spoke of the real reason I am here."

Ranef nodded respectfully. "I should have known Kathy was right, your eyes see deeply."

Lafiel frowned. "You know Okibe Kathryn?"

"I should think so, we do have three grown children."

This startling news sent Lafiel's mind racing down a number of parallel tracks. She and Kathryn had worked together investigating the conspiracy in the Hania Star Fleet that had led to the Mimic rebellion. Lafiel had come to know her quite well, but despite their friendship Kathryn had never spoken much about her children. Normally Lafiel would not consider that an oversight, Abh did not necessarily even maintain much contact with their grown children. Now suddenly Lafiel was thinking she should find that unusual or wrong even though she did not. That she turned out to have children with only the second member of the Intelligence branch Lafiel had ever spoken with at length strained credulity, especially since this man seemed so different from her in every way.

Ranef seemed to read all this in her face. "If that surprises you, be assured it surprised me no less when she proposed to me. Fear not, I shall not embarrass you with the details. I have read all of your reports and hers from the Vensath affair, that and Kathy's own letters assure me you two became fast friends. So I am certain she would not mind my telling you this much. When I expressed my surprise at her proposal, her comment was that she wished to have three sets of three children. Her first six children were grown, and she holds to the rather conservative view that every child should be the mixing of two genomes. So she wanted me to help complete the set for her."

Lafiel found it difficult to keep a smile from her face. "That... does sound very much like something Kathryn would say."

"We were already good friends, so I could hardly say no. She raised our children, and very well too. Our youngest is even in the Service now. One in three, not a bad average."

"It still seems too much of a coincidence that the only two intelligence officers I have ever spoken with at length turn out to have shared their genes," Lafiel said in a tone suggesting she needed more convincing.

"Our service tends to be a rather insular lot, what with there being so much we cannot discuss with people outside the service. Such relations are very common. But I can see where such a thing would appear too coincidental to somebody not accustomed to the sort of analysis I do. Perhaps I could convince you with a little game. It will also give you some insight into the sort of work I am doing that lends itself to isolation. Highness, I would like you to name somebody in the nobility whose name you know but with whom you have not met or communicated with."

Lafiel had an idea where this was going. "I expect you will be showing me the indirect relations linking that person with both of us. But is that something you really should be showing me?"

"I can show much even for your level of clearance. I believe you will find the exercise insightful."

"Very well. Shidoryua Seeru."

"Ah, the son of the last Prime Minister." Ranef touched his wristband. The lights dimmed and the windows went opaque. A holographic projection filled the room, their table and chairs appeared to float in black space. Between them a data display appeared. Exactly as she had expected, it was a diagram showing chains of mutual acquaintances between the late Prime Minister's son and her, and also between he and Ranef Duben. The chains were surprisingly short and varied. Ranef prompted her for a few more names, and she gave more. In each case, she was quite surprised by the links. But when she would direct her gaze at an icon indicating footnotes, rather than opening it would flash red. _Beyond my level of clearance._

After a while Lafiel leaned back and regarded Ranef under the latest maze of linked data windows. "You have made your point that seeming coincidences of association are in fact part of a tightly linked network. You have also succeeded in deflecting my query about my real reason for being here."

Ranef's expression became much more serious. "The truth is, there is a potential threat to your person that I feel obligated to inform you of."

"That sounds like something which should be reported to the local authorities."

"It has nothing to do with your presence here, Highness. It is a matter of some delicacy. I would like to show you a relation diagram similar to the ones we have been looking at. It is a local copy I made, with all links fully visible. Please bear in mind, I have the authority to show you this information but it is in technical violation of the secrecy acts. If you examine the information, I think you will understand why I wanted to show it to you."

He was asking her permission to show her things she might have no business seeing. There was danger both in seeing and in not seeing. She made her decision quickly. "Very well, please proceed."

Another network of data windows appeared. Lafiel's heart began racing. She saw her worst fears being confirmed. _He knows._

Lafiel took the time to review the material very carefully. It was all there, all the steps she had taken to cover her tracks, all the meetings in obscure places, all the messages and materials sent through intermediaries. Ranef had sifted through it all to discover what Lafiel had really done. At the end of the Vensath war she had been ordered to wipe the memory of Miriam Hender, the Mimic who had aided in Lafiel's investigation in Hania. She was to be terminated along with all the other Mimics that had been downloaded into artificial brains and trapped in robot bodies, as per Imperial decree. Lafiel had terminated her friend as ordered. She had also taken a backup of her brain and sent it to her vassal Seelnay, along with a specialized neural net it could be downloaded into and a robot body that could support it. In violation of Imperial law, a Mimic was being allowed to live. Miriam had kept a very low profile as she had been warned to, disguising herself as a standard-issue maid robot. Her only mistake had been to raise the priority level on a message she forwarded to Seelnay because it indicated a disgruntled business associate was going to be showing up at her office. That was something no maid robot would think to do.

_He has you and he knows it. There is nothing left but to find out what he wants._

Lafiel took another moment to find her center and then looked back down at her dinner companion. "What do you intend to do with this?"

"Nothing. I have complete discretion in what suspicions I choose to report. The level of analysis I do here is unique, but other people in other places are doing similar work. Recently more than one Mimic backup has been intercepted. It was dealt with quietly, but the word went out that the Emperor wants this stamped out. The fact is, you are in danger of being discovered. I read between the lines in Kathy's reports and letters, I know that both she and you became good friends with Miriam. I sympathize, really I do. But if this were to get out, you are not the only one who would suffer."

Lafiel knew that all too well. Dealing in Mimic backups was a capital offense. In the case of Lafiel and her vassals it was unlikely the ultimate punishment would be exercised. But the penalties would be severe, their lives would be ruined. "What do you suggest I do, Excellency?"

"I can have materials sent to me in ways that would be completely untraceable."

He was offering Miriam a safe haven. But Lafiel could guess what he was really after. She leaned forward and locked her eyes onto his. "Excellency, I'm sure you have studied my report to the Emperor detailing how the Mimics at Vensath were overcome by the neuro-virus. But I am not so sure you really grasp the horror of what happened there. In the blink of an eye, billions of minds just like yours or mine were dissolved into a single Collective. I am now the only living person who witnessed it, because all those minds are gone. By allowing that to happen I may very well have killed us all, Excellency. The Collective could stay in the galactic core forever, or they could emerge through plane space tomorrow and do the same to all of us. But I do not regret setting the Collectives free from the Mimics who were exploiting them, just as I do not regret saving my friend from an undeserved fate." Lafiel leaned back and regarded him coldly. "I have been living with those decisions for two years now, you cannot frighten me by telling me there might be consequences."

"I am not trying to frighten you," Ranef said gently. "I am trying to help you."

Lafiel slammed a hand down on the table."Then listen, and understand! If you are harboring any plans to exploit Mimics in your work here let me tell you that is the most dangerous thing you could do. You think you understand what they are capable of but you don't. What emerged from Vensath could squash us like insects, what emerges from your little project here might do likewise. If the prospect of having even one Mimic living here does not frighten you then you don't get it. Think very, _very _hard about my next question, Hecto-Commander Ranef Duben. If I deliver Miriam Hender to you, what will you do with her?"

Ranef answered quickly and calmly. "I will have her disguise herself as a maid-robot, just as she is doing now. I will give her a place where she may have privacy. I will be the only one aware of who she is. I will let her stay here as long as I am able and as long as she wishes. I will do nothing more."

That all sounded very reasonable, but Lafiel's instinct told her that he was lying. It also told her that Ranef was not impervious to reason. Maybe she could make him see reason. "I want to believe you, Excellency. But I also want to make certain you really understand what you are dealing with. Let me explain it to you as best I can."

He already knew the facts, but Lafiel did everything she could to make it sink in, the true horror of what happened on Vensath when she was a prisoner of the Mimics. She spared him nothing, offering lurid details that she had glossed over in her reports. She spoke of the human experiments being done by the Collectives, the little babies with their heads melded together to form gestalt brains. With fist tightly clenched under the table she described being humiliated by the amorous advances of a mad prison warden who had approached her in multiple robot bodies, both male and female forms. She spoke of the robot built in a day to look just like Lafiel, and how this doppelganger grinned as it described its plans to fill the galaxy with immortal supermen who would make Abh and landers alike all obsolete.

Throughout this, Ranef listened quietly but intently. When she was done, Lafiel asked him again whether he understood the gravity of what he had heard. He assured her in every way that he had. But she did not feel it from him. He did not have the soul-deep dread of somebody who knew just how close their whole world had come to obliteration. She despaired that she had been unable to make him understand.

At length Ranef's wristband chimed and he glanced at it. "I am told the Kamrau family cruiser is approaching the dock. Perhaps we should call it a night."

Lafiel stood. "Thank you for dinner, Excellency."

"It has been my pleasure."

They were silent in the elevator. When they were down in the lobby Lafiel turned to Ranef. "Before I leave the island, I will be contacting you again, Excellency. At that time I will inform you of my decision."

"I look forward to hearing from you, Highness."

As Lafiel walked out to the cruiser, she resolved herself to the decision she had already made. There was no way that she could trust Miriam to this man. He had nearly fooled her into thinking he was just trying to help, but he had made one mistake. Ranef had never met a Mimic. He could not possibly understand right down to the bottom of his heart that they were people no less than anybody else. When confronted with Lafiel's crime, his reaction should not have been to offer sanctuary to Miriam. His first thought should have been that the illegal robot should be put down like an animal that had outlived its usefulness. That was how he had given up the game. He wanted Miriam for something, Lafiel was sure of it.

She would delay as much as she could, to give Miriam all the time Lafiel was able to give. But on the day before her scheduled departure, she would send a message to Seelnay. It would be a letter telling how she had enjoyed her furlough. But it would contain a keyword known only to the two of them. This was the promise Miriam had extracted from Lafiel before agreeing to be secreted away. If there were any danger of Lafiel's crime being discovered, she would send the keyword to Seelnay. Lafiel's vassal would wipe Miriam's memory and convert her robot body into a standard maid robot. No physical evidence would remain.

_We told each other this day might come and we must accept that. I know Miriam will submit bravely and will bear us no ill will. And I know Seelnay will do it, she is strong. But oh, how it will break her heart. Jinto will never contact Seelnay and he knows not to ask me. Nobody else will know of this, ever._

It was dark now, very little was showing through the glass sides of the umbilical. Thom was waiting inside the door as Lafiel boarded the cruiser. "Good evening, My Lady. Was the food at least decent?"

"Yes, but the man is an insufferable bore," Lafiel said in an irritated voice. "He spent the whole evening talking about data mining and gossiping about people I barely know. Be grateful you were not invited."

There was one other thing Miriam had made her promise: that Lafiel would be happy for the time she had given Miriam to live peacefully among friends, and that when the time came Lafiel would let her go without regret. Lafiel resolved herself to keep that promise as well.

End Chapter 4


	5. Chapter 5

**Furlough**

**A Banner of the Stars Story**

Chapter 5 – In the Village

After securing the cruiser in the town marina, the six of them made their way down the long pier towards the town. Back in the day the Kamrau family had taken Jinto on a few day trips to the island capital. As far as he could see, Oakuri had not changed much. The isolated houses and settlements on the island tended to be done in earth colors that blended with the background, or rather the small parts of the houses that were not just glass. In Oakuri pretty much everything was done in white or some off-white surface. The tumble of low buildings climbing into the surrounding hills blazed brightly in the high morning sun.

"I have never seen so many people since arriving here," Lafiel said from beside Jinto. "Are all these people here for the event?"

"No, our event is pretty small," Beth said from in front of them where she walked arm in arm with her husband. "The village is actually less busy than usual, it's the off season."

"I thought you were too close to the equator for distinct seasons," Lafiel said.

"We get more hurricanes about now," Thom said. "As likely as not you'll see one or two before you've left. We get plenty of warning so no worries, but it does pretty much shut everything down."

"Our resort is the long building in light peach up on the left," Emery said from where she and Shyori were walking behind them.

"I see it," Lafiel said. On Emery's advice she had added a wide-brim hat to go along with her knee-length dress, to ward off the punishing sun. The ubiquitous clouds remained over the volcanic plugs, but this time of year the prevailing winds kept the clouds away from the bay where Oakuri stood. Lafiel's new look made Jinto think nostalgically back to the days they had been on the run together on the planet Clasbul. It looked even better without her hair dyed black, as it had been then.

"Remember this is a couples-only event," Shyori said. "You're our third couple, that's how we got in."

Lafiel and Jinto glanced back to see Emery and Shyori walking arm in arm. Shyori grinned widely, Emery just had a little bemused smile.

"So we need to be a couple? Very well." Lafiel linked her arm through Jinto's and smiled at him. "Will this do?"

"That's a good start," Shyori said. "But you need to- OW!"

"What's wrong?" Lafiel asked.

"I just pinched her," Emery said evenly. "Don't worry about it. The whole point is everyone can relax without worrying about people hitting on their partners."

"I see. So it is the opposite of a 'singles only' event where the intent is to hit on other singles."

Both Beth and Thom got a good laugh out of that. "Now who told you about that?" Beth asked.

"Nobody did, but it just stands to reason."

"You have the right idea, My Lady," Thom said. "At a couples only event you won't need to beat the boys off with a stick."

"I am hoping that is just a metaphor."

"It is," Jinto assured her. "But if you show up at a singles event looking this good then you might really need to carry a big stick."

"Idiot."

Thom had been the primary instigator of this little trip out to the Village. There was an annual music event he and Beth liked to go to, and when they started talking about it one thing led to another. The arrangement had other benefits. Perhaps most importantly it gave Geith an Chisha a chance to spend some time together, especially now that they were anticipating the imminent arrival of their first child.

By the time they had lunch and checked in at the resort their luggage had been delivered. As promised the suite that Jinto and Lafiel shared had an attached en suite that he could use. When they got freshened up and reassembled in the lobby, they found that the other three women had conspired to introduce a change in plan. "You really want to go shopping now?" Jinto asked incredulously.

"There's a formal dinner show tonight," Emery explained. "Lady Paryun said she's interested in getting formal island silks, if we get them today then she can wear them tonight."

"I don't want to put you to any trouble," Lafiel said hesitantly.

"Trouble?" Shyori said. "Are you kidding? We've booked a private fitting room at the swankiest shop in the Village and we get to dress up a certified knockout who has an unlimited budget. You'll be lucky if we actually manage to show up on time for dinner."

Beth grinned at Jinto. "I'll get her back to you on time, don't worry."

"That'll work out fine," Thom said. "I can take Jinto to the pubs he couldn't go to when he was a minor. I'll be sure to get him back on time too."

"In decent shape, please," Emery said, eying her father sternly.

They said their goodbyes and Thom led Jinto out onto the wide streets of Oakuri. They were only moderately crowded, mostly pedestrians with the occasional bikes and scooters. There were tourists, but just from the snippets of Delktoe that Jinto heard most of the people were speaking the local dialect. Thom took them into an out of the way place called Dark Sodom. He paid the cover charge and they made their way inside.

By the time Jinto had been old enough to enter drinking establishments, he had been in the Space Force and always living either on ships or on remote space habitats within the Empire. Bars frequented by the Abh nobility or Space Force officers were nice enough, but rather generic. The Abh craved tradition and continuity in their off hours, so with a few exceptions the bars he had been able to visit had been luxurious but unremarkable places.

Dark Sodom was... dark. There were no windows. The low, unobtrusive music was just enough to mask the sound of conversation from the men already seated. Thom paid something to the hostess and they were taken to a small table near a long raised stage that projected out into the room. "This place has an attached microbrewery," Thom said. "I recommend the stout."

"That sounds fine."

"Two pints," Thom said to the waitress, who nodded and walked off smartly. "Did I tell you we got a present from the House on the Hill?"

That really caught Jinto's interest. "A present?"

"Yeah, a big bottle of Lakfakalle brandy that's older than I am, along with a letter of thanks for transporting his dinner guest the other day."

"I guess there is an implied apology for not inviting you too." Jinto smiled. "Don't tell Lafiel, she's already upset enough about that. She'll just be more mad that Ranef didn't send me an apology too."

Their drinks arrived. When the waitress left Thom's expression became more serious. "She was really spooked on the way out there. When we brought her back she just seemed irritated about the whole thing. But I couldn't help thinking there was something more."

As Jinto expected, Thom had picked up at least some of what Jinto had inferred. He took a moment to collect his thoughts. "I think there was a reason only Lafiel got invited. They had something to talk about, something Lafiel didn't like. But whatever it was, she got it resolved. I get a sense of closure from her."

"Having the spooks take an interest is never a good sign."

Jinto picked up on the implied question. "If either of us had anything to worry about, Lafiel would tell us. I'm guessing it was something related to family or to the squadron. Whatever needed doing, I think it got done." Jinto had his own suspicions. Lafiel had a secret that could get her in trouble, but she had a way of dealing with it. He trusted her to tell him whatever and whenever she judged best.

"She seemed to be in pretty high spirits today," Thom ventured.

Again, there was an implied question. Jinto did not see any point lying. "She's trying just a little too hard. I doubt anyone else will pick up on it. It's like when we've lost somebody on the Frikov, I can see how it tears her up. But she bounces back faster now than she used to. I'd say give her a couple of days. I think this trip is the perfect distraction, a new place and also familiar faces." He contemplated his pint. "I hope she's having fun," he said softly.

"Beth picks up on a lot of things," Thom said. "Usually better than I do. She knows Lafiel is dealing with something right now. Beth will watch out for her, Jinto."

Jinto smiled. "I know she will. I'm sorry we've brought along some excess baggage with us."

Thom dismissed the apology with a shake of his head. "I still can't get over it. When we sent you off to go finish your last year of school, we never thought you'd be back here with a Princess of the Empire in tow. You really picked yourself a live one, didn't you?"

Jinto had to think a moment how to reply. "Lafiel's mother was the one who assigned her to pick me up from Delktou, and to pilot the ship we escaped in. It is because of her that Lafiel and I were able to meet. It is one of my greatest regrets that I was never able to thank her for that."

"I'll bet Lafiel has thought the same thing."

"I'm not sure which of us misses Plakia more. Because of that Birth Secret, Lafiel didn't even know Plakia was her gene donor until shortly before I met her. To her Plakia was a friend of the family and then later her commanding officer. I only knew her for a couple of days while I was on her ship. I could just barely recite my own name and rank in Baronh and was wondering how to tell all these beautiful blue-haired people apart. Plakia watched over me the whole time and smiled like she was mother to us all and answered all my stupid questions. It made me feel like just maybe some day Count Hyde could be more than just a label somebody had attached to me. When Lafiel told me about her Birth Secret I just thought of course, I should have seen it, who else could be her mother?"

Jinto stopped rambling. Thom just regarded him quietly for a moment. "She must feel like the second parent you lost."

"I suppose so. I sort of do think of her that way. I knew her better than my own mother, really." Jinto's birth mother had died when he was very young, he only had vague memories of her.

"When you were staying with us, we told the kids not to ask about your parents."

"They never did." Jinto smiled. "Not even Emery. That must have taken some magic parenting on your part. She always asked questions, wanted to know everything short of whether I pee standing up."

Thom chuckled. "I'll bet. She was sassy, but she always knew which lines not to cross."

"I was so afraid when I finally told them who I was. It meant a lot to me that they treated me just the same, even if it was just the day before I left."

"For weeks after that Geith was bragging about being your best friend. Emery was telling her friends you had asked her to marry you."

"That little scamp. For the record, it's not true."

Thom's expression sobered. He spoke softly. "The next year, when the occupation forces released news of your father's execution, she cried."

Jinto was shocked into silence. This was something he had never heard. He had not been able to contact the Kamrau family until years later when the United Mankind occupation was ended. Somehow he had never thought to consider how that news would affect his home-stay family. To him they had been a refuge and a safe home. After the war broke out, that happy memory had seemed so far away. He had been thinking of this island as he remembered it, not how it was being impacted by the same history that was sweeping him along. "Thom, I had no idea."

"We had no news of what had happened to you. When the occupation ended and your first letter arrived, Geith called us all together and read it aloud."

Jinto shook his head. "I hardly know what to say. Emery may be the only person who shed a tear for my father when he died." Even as he said it Jinto knew the statement was ridiculous, Emery had never met his father. She had been crying for him, wondering how he had taken the news or maybe wondering if he was even alive to hear it. Be that as it may, the other implication of the statement was perfectly true. Jinto had not shed a tear for a father who had been a distant figure since long before the Abh came and turned their world upside-down.

"You never talked about him in your letters. I told Geith that he should just respect that."

"There was nothing to talk about," Jinto said, surprised by the bitterness in his voice. "I treated my father with the same indifference that he treated me. All those years on Delktou I got one letter from him the same time each year, congratulating me on advancing to the next grade level and telling me I should keep doing my best. Same letter, same regional government letterhead, same digital signature. Anything more about him I had to glean from the same news feeds everyone else was reading. I got more support from Plakia in a day than I got from him in seven years!"

Jinto realized he had been raising his voice. He leaned on the table, put his hands to his forehead and closed his eyes. When he was calm again, he thought about what he had said, thought very hard. It took a while. When he looked up, Thom was waiting patiently. Jinto could see they had an understanding, there was no need for an apology. "When my mother died, he had no idea what to do with me. How could he? I was _her_ job. So he did what he always did. He gave the job to whomever he thought would do it best. He gave me to Teal, his best friend. Teal and his wife couldn't have their own children, so it all made sense."

"That must have been a hard choice for him to make."

Jinto thought about another choice that his father had made. "When he asked the Abh to make him Count Hyde in exchange for Martine's surrender, I wonder how surprised he was that they accepted. He never said."

"That really was a shot in the dark, no mistake." Thom smiled. "He would never admit but I bet Commander-in-Chief Abriel was surprised by that one. He'd just shown up with a thousand warships all ready to add a new planet to the Empire and here's this guy saying you can have it without a fight as long as you made me Count. I guess Abriel figures what the hell, this guy at least has the stones for the job."

Jinto could not help but smile, imagining that scene. "I never really knew how they treated him, the staff the Empire left behind in Martine to run the territory for him. After I signed the treaty bringing them back into the Empire, I did look for anything in the archive that he might have written. There were plenty of documents with his signature, but the author of the paper was always somebody else. It was like he just signed papers all day, maybe they didn't even tell him what he was signing. He never told me."

"Maybe they never let him tell you."

Jinto just looked at Thom, trying to deal with what he had said. It was a while before he could actually speak. "Thom... do you really think so?"

"Think about it. They didn't know him, they didn't know you. They wanted you groomed as the next Count, but for all they knew Lin Rock wanted his son to lead the rebellion that would make Martine an independent state again. Their best option was to separate you and keep him under wraps."

Jinto thought about that for a good long time. "He had been in control all his life. It must have been hell for him, being so helpless."

"But I'll bet he never regretted it. Not even when his former friends sentenced him to death."

Jinto nodded solemnly. "I've spent so much time thinking of how his decision changed my life, never how it changed his. He paid a much higher price than I did."

"We owe everything we have to decisions our parents made, Jinto. My dad decided to settle here and I met Beth. Your dad had you sent here and you met Lafiel." He smiled. "I think we both did pretty good."

"Yes, we did." For the first time, Jinto regretted he was never able to tell his father of the happiness he had found in this strange new world. He would never be able to say thanks.

Thom raised his glass. "To Lin Rock, a man who could make the hard choices." They clinked glasses and drank.

Jinto felt ashamed he had not thought to say this to Thom until now, but it still needed saying. "I wrote Geith after hearing the news in his first letter, but I haven't had a chance to say it to you. I was really sorry when I heard your dad passed away. He was always so kind to me while I was staying here. I don't know how much he told you, but those first two summers when you weren't here, he and I would talk a lot. He was like Plakia in that way, I could ask him anything. I really thought he must be the wisest man in the galaxy."

"Yeah, Dad was a real Renaissance Man."

Thanks to his many talks with Thom years ago, Jinto actually knew what that meant. "I'll bet you learned Classic English just so there would be something you knew that he didn't."

Thom smiled. "Maybe. I did enjoy quoting things he'd never read, that annoyed the hell out of him. Of course he did that plenty to me, so I knew what a motivator it could be. We got each other to read things we never would have otherwise."

"I got a little taste of that when he tried to get me to read Abh literature as language practice."

"Oh no, did he give you that 'collected Abh parables' reader?"

"I'm afraid so."

Thom laughed. "The single most boring, repetitive collection ever assembled! It's hard to believe but dad actually did you a favor. All Abh kids have to recite that drivel for memory. Anyone who's going to live with them had at least better have read them. Local schools are usually too embarrassed to put something so abysmally dull on the normal curriculum."

"Now that you mention it, a lot of those parables do seem to get quoted quite regularly."

"It's sort of like quoting Shakespeare was regarded in the old English world, but at least he was interesting."

"I'm embarrassed to say I only know that as a name."

Thom spent some time explaining to Jinto who Shakespeare was, and describing some of his better known plays. Just from the plot summaries a lot of it sounded very lurid. Thom was describing an odd story called the Tempest when the lights on the stage came up and the music got louder. A young woman in formal silks appeared on stage, all smiles. Jinto leaned in. "Thom, I don't get the impression she's going to be singing."

Thom grinned. He shifted his chair over to get a better view."She's going to be giving us an important lesson, Jinto. She's going to be showing us how those silks come off."

# # # #

Lafiel examined herself in the mirror one last time, walked out of her bedroom into the suite lounge and knocked on the door of Jinto's suite. "Jinto, I'm ready," she called.

Shortly he opened the door and emerged, dressed in his white suit. He looked at her approvingly. "I take it back, it was worth taking all afternoon to pick those out. You look stunning."

"Thank you. Sorry to have kept you waiting."

"No problem, I know those take a lot of hard work to take... to put on."

"I do like them, but I'm astonished they have an outfit that takes longer to assemble than my Abriel formal robes."

"Is this some sort of competition you're having with the island?"

"Idiot. Let's go, we'll be late."

They emerged into the hallway and Lafiel took Jinto's arm. She looked him over as the walked. This seemed to make him nervous. "Is there something wrong with my suit?"

"No, I was just wondering how you would look in these."

"That's not funny! I don't have that sort of hobby."

"I am still trying to get my head around the notion of gender-specific fashion. I understand the necessity for swimwear and beach wear, but not for formal wear."

"Why, would you prefer to wear my suit?"

"It does look much simpler to put on. Do you think it would look good on me?"

"Certainly not as good as those."

Lafiel smiled. "Then I will decline." Jinto appeared to be relived.

Other couples were also making their way into the concert hall. The lights were on but dimmed, and the floor was covered with small tables for two. They spotted and waved to Emery and Shyori, then to Thom and Beth. Jinto led Lafiel over to their own table, which had been assigned at random. An appetizer and wine was already laid out for them. "Do you know much about the music program?" Lafiel asked.

"This is Classics Night, all pre-diaspora music. Quite a variety from what Thom described. A mix of acoustic and amplified instruments. The songs will be mostly in Delktou. If you want a running translation I'd suggest getting text display on your tiara's holo HUD rather than audio."

Lafiel worked her wristband. "You're right, there is a Baronh text channel."

Shortly the first group of musicians was announced and they emerged onto the stage, welcomed by applause. Lafiel did not recognize any of the instruments. The largest, sliding forward on a platform, appeared to be an elaborate set of drums and cymbals. Lafiel's exposure to music was very limited, she was only really familiar with the brass bands that played at official functions. Those were often accompanied by drums or cymbals, but of a much simpler variety.

The first piece began with two quick drumbeats then a veritable tidal wave of sound. The sheer intensity of it surprised her. The instruments were clearly being amplified by hidden speakers. Lafiel had been vaguely aware that such music existed. She had heard it referred to disparagingly as a wall of sound. She could see where that description came from. But as she listened, a different image came to mind. It was more like they were laying down an audio landscape of infinity, one to match the ubiquitous ocean horizon that always surrounded them. The tone of the music was not something that Lafiel could honestly call inspiring or uplifting. More than anything it sounded defiant.

Lafiel's only real complaint was the aggressive volume level. Her own middle ear was enhanced enough to be able to shrug off two hundred years of such punishment. But she had to wonder whether landers who frequented such concerts were damaging their hearing.

From the translation Lafiel read, the songs were mostly a sort of love poetry. The view they projected of romantic relations was a highly varied one that ranged from ecstatic to ironic to regretful. If there were any sort of common thread running through them, it appeared to be a warning that the mutual feeling between lovers was the most difficult thing in the world to hang on to. The message was often delivered by the singers with a tone and a demeanor that was stern and had hints of bitterness and anger. It was a far cry from the choral music Lafiel was used to with rows of singers joined in harmonious union.

In a short intermission between sets, Lafiel asked Jinto "What is the long-necked string instrument called?"

"That's called an electric guitar."

"Did you ever play one?"

"I played an acoustic guitar a bit in school. Not successfully, I'm pretty much tone-deaf."

"If you actually tried to play an instrument, that is more than I can claim."

"Do you like the sound of it?"

"It does have a triumphant sound that is very unique. I had at first thought that there was some malfunction in the amplification, but it appears they were actually making very precise use of acoustic feedback. It felt like they were courting disaster with energies that are barely contained, or dancing on the edge of chaos and inviting us to join in."

"Care to go up there and give it a try?"

"Idiot."

The next group was a quartet playing acoustic instruments. One of them also had a drum set, but it was used in a very different way. Rather than setting an aggressive, steady beat for the others to follow, it merely punctuated the flow of music at choice moments. The music was rarely what Lafiel would call melodic, but it had very complex rhythms that were challenging to try and sort out. She got the distinct impression that there was a lot of improvisation going on. The music would very often take turns that she did not expect but in retrospect had its own logic.

The music from this group had thus far been instrumental only. But now a songstress came onto the stage to very enthusiastic applause. Her appearance was extraordinary. She had a great deal of body fat, something Lafiel had seen occasionally among the people here. But rather than concealing it, she flaunted it triumphantly. A long, tight red dress hugged her very ample, wide hourglass figure. It was her demeanor that struck Lafiel even more. The way she sauntered onto the stage, the way she smiled haughtily at the crowd all said _I am the one you came here to see. _Her face radiated a fierce pride and playfulness all at once. She had what Lafiel could only describe as a commanding stage presence.

Stepping up to the mike, she said "Let me tell you folks all about My Handy Man." Loud cheers and applause erupted from the audience. Lafiel's translator footnoted this as a song by somebody named Ethel Waters. Apparently it was something well known to the people here.

A very light musical accompaniment began. What followed was less singing than a poetry reading. But rather than addressing the crowd Lafiel felt as if the woman was addressing her personally. The reaction of the crowd was also very different. They had always saved their enthusiasm for after the music was done, but as this performance was in progress people were giving out cheers and whistles at various points. Rather than being put off by these interruptions of her performance, she seemed to drink it in like nectar. The translation came across Lafiel visual field. Much of it was lost to her, even with flashing footnotes. But the general theme was quite plain. She was singing the praises of her man, somebody who was very useful around the house. She described in detail all the work he did for her day in and day out, keeping the house and yard in proper shape. The crowd was particularly appreciative when she sang about how well he handled her front yard.

When she was done, the applause was riotous. When it died down enough that it was possible to talk again, Lafiel leaned with a closed hand against her face and gave Jinto a narrow-eyed sidelong look. "Jinto, my translator made reference to all sorts of archaic house and garden work that her man was doing for her. But I can't help feeling that there is an implied subtext to this song."

Jinto gave that awkward smile that always set her heart at ease. "Subtext is the hallmark of a good song."

"Then perhaps you could explain it to me."

"The best works are always open to personal interpretation, everyone will see something different."

"A very convenient answer." They shared a knowing smile.

The next three songs exercised the performer's singing voice more energetically. The words were just as suggestive as the last and each was received just as enthusiastically. Her voice had extraordinary range, and the way she used it varied wildly. Sometimes she sang clear notes that felt like they could shatter glass, sometimes she very nearly shouted out, sometimes she addressed the room with the intimacy of a whisper. But always, always she had all eyes on her.

When the musicians retired and there was an intermission, Jinto asked her opinion. "I was most struck by the demeanor of the singer. Right from the moment she appeared, she gained the attention, respect and affection of everyone before she had even said or done anything. I wonder if this is what I've heard Beth refer to as 'owning the room'."

Jinto nodded. "Yes, you can definitely mark this as a prime example of somebody who owned the room."

The next group of musicians more resembled the first, but was larger and used a greater variety of instruments. Both the volume and the driving beat were less aggressive, the singing was more gentle and the themes of the songs was more wistful. Lafiel enjoyed the music well enough, but wondered how much from the poetry was being lost in translation. In most cases the intent of the message was clear enough, but somehow it was not speaking to her the way it seemed to be resonating with the rest of the audience.

An unsettling answer came into Lafiel's mind. Maybe it had nothing to do with language. Maybe she was just lacking something.

Over the past days she had spent on the island, a disquieting idea had been slowly creeping into Lafiel's mind. It was a growing anxiety that somehow she was just missing the point. For all that she thought, she just could not articulate what was missing. On the surface everything was clear. People here lived and loved much as the Kin of the Stars did. The differences were many, but the fundamentals were the same. She could recognize all the same things that her own people sought out and strove for, what was really so different?

But yesterday, her vague, troubled notions had been made clear and given a name. She had done what Ranef had suggested she do. She had done her homework, and had learned exactly what it is that she is lacking.

Lafiel gazed longingly at Jinto's hand, resting on the table between them. She could take his hand right now, it would be so easy. It would lead them to a place they both wanted to go, the same place that all the other couples in this room had chosen to go. But it would not be the same, could not be the same. Not really, not with her. _He thinks I could give him what he wants, but only because he knows no better. I knew no better either, but now I do._

She should tell him, but she knew in her heart that she could not. Being silent was unfair to him. But what good would it do to speak of it? He would stay with her anyway, she knew that. He had said so a long time ago, and she believed him. Lafiel let the evocative music wash over her as she considered what lay before her. She had a friend who was happy to stay with her and whom she was happy to have with her. That was not everything they wanted, but it was all she could really give him. Whether either of them liked it or not, it would have to be enough. Just like the coming end of Miriam's reprieve, it was something inevitable, something Lafiel had to accept.

By the time the concert and dinner were over, Lafiel was ready to accept Jinto as the best friend she would ever have. That gave her a sense of peace and closure she had not expected to feel.

Later in their room, Lafiel went on the local network and found some music her father liked that she wanted Jinto to hear. When he told her that he hated it too, she just about fell down laughing. They spent a couple of hours finding and playing other music they hated. It felt wonderful, and that night Lafiel slept contentedly.

# # # #

It was Lafiel's first time seeing a crowded beach. There had already been a multitude of people here earlier in the morning when the six of them had come out to lay down a blanket and "stake their claim" as Beth had put it. Now she could see the benefit of an early start. There seemed to be more blanket than sand showing on the portion of the beach above the upper tide mark. They had already spent a fair amount of time in the water, mostly hitting a great huge inflatable ball around. When it got more crowded, they had retreated back to the blanket. Emery and Shyori had gone to meet Shyori's brother, who had apparently arrived in town today. She was not quite sure where Thom had taken Jinto, but now Beth had gone to get her something to eat. For a while, Lafiel found herself alone minding the fort, as it were. She lay down, closed her eyes and basked in the sun, which had been shining unobstructed all day. Her Froth sense was giving her and interesting kaleidoscopic image as people moved around her. Nearby conversations blurred into white noise, punctuated by the occasional far off cry of children at play.

It was better now, somehow. She had no more illusions about becoming a part of this world. She would be here for a time, then she would bring Jinto back to her world again. It was the place he had to be, just because the flow of history had decreed it so. It would never be a perfect fit for him, but she would do everything she could to make him as happy as he could be. And he need never be troubled by the terrible thing she would need to do before she left. It was the least she could do, in return for his devotion.

Lafiel's eyes came open with a start. _I must have dozed off. _She sat up and resumed watching the flow of people around her. The Froth sense detected somebody approaching from behind. She turned to see Emery and Shyori, accompanied by a man she had not met. Shyori's brother, she assumed. He was light-skinned and blond-haired like her, and about as tall. Lafiel was astonished by the size of his muscles. She had thought Isu looked muscle-bound, but this was something else altogether.

"My Lady, where is everyone?" Emery asked.

"Beth went to get us something to eat, I'm not sure were the men went."

"My Lady, this is my brother Brint," Shyori said.

He smiled and nodded. "My pleasure." He seemed a little nervous. Lafiel had been getting that sometimes from people who were meeting Abh nobility for the first time.

She gave him a warm smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Brint. Your sister has been taking very good care of me."

"Glad to hear it," he said, perhaps a little more relaxed.

"We're looking for a fourth for volleyball," Shyori said. "Interested?"

"Yes, thank you. Why don't you join us to eat first?"

"We already did," Emery said. "Maybe we should go make sure we can get a net."

"That's fine, I'll join you in a little while."

When they turned around to leave, Lafiel found to her surprise that Brint's skimpy swimwear was even more skimpy on the back. The extent of his muscle development was very much on display. _My goodness..._ She kept watching them as they weaved their way between the garden of beach blankets.

"Brint's got quite the yummy pair of buns on him, now doesn't he?"

Lafiel managed not to jump. She had not even been aware of Beth crouching down beside her, the crowd of people was distracting her Froth sense. _Was she referring to his...? _"Brint must do a great deal of resistance training," Lafiel managed to say.

Beth grinned, her teeth a perfect row of ivory in a face of ebony. "That and steroid treatment. It's a fad that comes and goes. Honey, are you using sun block? You look a little red."

"Thank you for asking but I don't need any. I looked up the Delktou environmental conditions before I left, the UV radiation levels are well within my tolerance."

"That's good. Here, eat before it starts melting."

Beth handed her... something. "What is it?"

"An ice cream cone, My Lady," Beth said. As if to demonstrate what Lafiel was supposed to do with it, she licked off some of the white creamy top from her own and swallowed it.

It looked like a strangely vulgar way of eating, but without an implement there was not much alternative. Lafiel tentatively licked some. "It's very good," she said truthfully. Something cool in the heat was doubly welcome. She had some more. "Oh..."

Beth laughed. "I would kill for a camera right now. Here." She passed Lafiel a napkin.

"Thank you." Lafiel took it and wiped ice cream from her nose.

"You seemed a little distracted, I guess you're not used to crowds."

"All the movement overloads my Froth sense a little."

"Then why not take it off?"

"I only ever remove my tiara when I sleep or wash. I would feel rather naked without it... so to speak. But it's fine, really. In fact I rather enjoy watching all the children play. It's not something I normally get to see."

"I love it too. But they can be a handful, let me tell you. Especially three at once."

"Raising children with one parent absent most of the time is very common for us, but we rarely try to raise three at once. I can't imagine that was easy."

"Ernst and Mari were here to help, it wasn't so bad. But if you've got the years to spare, my advice would be to raise them one at a time. You got three kids always at loggerheads that's six times the problems, no mistake."

Lafiel found herself considering something a bit different. "I was thinking more of Thom's long absences. I can see how close you are, that must have been difficult."

"There's difficult when you're apart then there's sometimes a different sort of difficult when you're together." She grinned wickedly. "Absence makes the heart grown fonder and familiarity breeds contempt." She laughed at Lafiel's startled look. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shatter your illusions of marital bliss among the landers. Staying together this long without killing each other takes a lot of good hard work."

Lafiel resisted the urge to apologize for prying into a private matter, there was clearly none required. She devoted some attention to her cone for a moment, making sure she kept up with the melting. "Doesn't it get easier over the years?"

"Only if you've both learned what to do and what not to do." Her smile broadened. "When the time comes I expect you'll find it's about as hard as piloting a ship."

"I don't actually pilot my ship." Somehow that got into a discussion of bridge operations on a Space Force frigate. She talked about the role each of her bridge officers played. After a while she realized she had been getting carried away, perhaps lulled by the familiarity of what she was describing. "I expect this must be rather boring... is this what Shyori would call 'guy talk'?"

Beth's smile was warm. "A lot of it was techno-babble but I can see your crew are like family to you. I get the feeling Ekuryua has been with you for a while."

"Yes, she's served with me about as long as Jinto has."

"You have a good relationship with her?"

"Yes, the best! She's a genius pilot, even if some of the staff officers don't think so. I'll admit on the surface she seems reckless but if you really watch her and what she's doing you see she's always thinking two steps ahead of what's going on around her. When she says she can do something, I know she can, even if it's not obvious how right at the moment. It was really hard for me working with a pilot instead of piloting the ship myself but now I feel like she knows what I want before I know it myself. It hasn't been easy, there were a few times I was practically shrieking at her right there on the bridge. And getting her to share in management of the crew has been a real chore. But she's started to see that she and I trusting each other is not enough, she has to have relationships of trust with all the crew. I've come to realize that's very difficult for her. She did not have a lot of the opportunities I did so there are things she never got a chance to learn. I try to help her as I can." Lafiel realized she had been getting carried away again. "I hope she's enjoying Lakfakalle," she said in a softer voice.

"Sounds like you two are practically married."

Lafiel blinked. "No, we don't have that sort of relationship. Not like... that's actually very rare among the Abh."

Beth shook her head. "I didn't mean literally, dear. I mean, what you and her have to put into forging your working relationship and your friendship, that's a lot like marriage."

Lafiel took a moment to digest that. "I suppose you're right. We have to watch over our ship and crew together just like you've had to watch over your house and children together. But it's not as if she and I are bonded for life."

"Well, sadly, sometimes marriage is like that too. It's only going to stick as long as they both really want it to. And they've both got to be people who go out and _get _what they want."

"But so many of you stay together so long, it must be worth it."

Beth nodded slowly. "Oh, when you get it right, it's definitely worth it."

They sat in comfortable silence for a while. At length, Lafiel contemplated the cone with just a flat surface of ice cream on it. "What do we do with these?" Beth smiled and bit into hers. "Oh, I see." Lafiel took a tentative nibble. "That's good too. It seems even on our trip to the Village you're still feeding me."

"It's been my great pleasure, My Lady." It really sounded like she meant it.

"It must be a nice break eating in restaurants for a few days."

"Yes and no. Somehow, it doesn't quite feel like a proper meal unless I've killed something first."

Lafiel decided to just let that one go. "Perhaps when we get back I can help you in the kitchen some time. I am interested in learning something about cooking." She smiled. "I mean proper cooking, not the field cooking your husband has been teaching me."

"I would love to do that, My Lady. I think you'll find that cutting up mostly dead animals with sharp knives can be great fun. Is there somebody special you want to cook for when you get home?"

"It's just another one of the many things I've never had a chance to do."

"Well, nothing wrong with that now. But I wouldn't spent a lot of time worrying about things you've never done, dear. You and Jinto have this thing in common: you're both like thoroughbred racers who have been groomed from day one to do one job and do it well. You do that job well, you do it together, you've got something most people only dream of. You've got somebody you can look in the eye with pride and with love. Whatever you have to do for that, it will be worth it."

Lafiel smiled and nodded."Yes, it will be. It is."

"Now you just think of the look that'll be on his face when we tell him that what he just ate had been prepared by Her Highness Viscountess of Paryun Abriel Lafiel."

Lafiel smiled as she imagined that. "The look on his face will probably say, 'Am I going to die?'"

"Oh I can hardly wait." Beth finished off the rest of her cone. "If I know my daughter and company they've already had you promise to make a volleyball foursome with them. You'd best finish that off and go find them, I really want to sleep here for a while."

# # # #

Jinto changed back to his swimsuit in the change-house and made his way back to their beach blanket. _Thom does know some interesting places in this town, no mistake. _They had run into an old friend of Thom's and those two wanted to get caught up. Jinto had left them behind so that he could get back to the beach at least some time kind of close to when he said he would.

He found Beth by herself, sound asleep. There was an arrow drawn in the sand with the letters V.B below it. _Volleyball nets, that way. Got it. _He made his way over there.

Last night after the concert, he and Lafiel finding and listening to bad music together had been a real blast, actually the highlight of the evening. They had found out all sorts of little things about each other's past they had never thought to ask before. They had gone to bed far too late, tired and happy. This morning she had greeted him with that same smile, as if she had slept with it.

With a little time to think by himself, Jinto could not help but remember what he had said to Thom yesterday. She was still trying just a little bit too hard.

Jinto found Emery and Shyori at one of the nets, but to his surprise they were playing doubles with Cicily and Ashlin. He had not even known they were in town. Emery spotted Jinto and they paused their game. Jinto greeted everyone. "So is this a chance meeting?"

"Yeah, we're just here for the day," Cicily explained. "We decided to ping Emery and then met up. Rosa's here too, I think she's still with Lady Paryun and Brint."

"What are they up to?"

Everyone laughed. "He and our Lady really seemed to hit it off," Emery said. "She found out he's a tether-ball fanatic and after talking about that very excitedly for about ten minutes solid they're right away all pumped to go off and have a tournament."

"They dumped us!" Shyori said. "That game's fun enough but I don't get how there can be people who take it so seriously."

Jinto grinned. "Lafiel takes everything she does seriously."

"Well those two really turned out to be two peas in a pod that way," Ashlin said.

Jinto could understand what she meant. He had just met Brint on this trip and had only spent a lot of time with him at the beach party the men had while the women were out diving that day. Jinto had a pretty strong impression of the man. Brint was a sportsman in the best sense of the word, but on the playing field he would show no quarter. A perfect mirror for Lafiel in other words.

The girls pointed him in the right direction and Jinto continued on his way. He found where a few of the posts had been set up on the beach near the boardwalk. Jinto was rather astonished by what he saw. Most did not think of this as much of a spectator sport but Brint and Lafiel had gathered a respectable audience. They were both intensely focused on their game, lost in a chaotic flurry of motion. He could see from the way the tether was wrapped Brint currently had the upper hand.

Among the little crowd he spotted Rosa. She was watching with a vaguely worried look on her face. When she spotted Jinto, they both waved and walked to meet halfway around the circle of spectators. "My sympathies for being left the odd one out," Jinto quipped.

Rosa did not really rise to the gentle jibe. "I more or less have chaperone duty," she said in a way that suggested she meant it. Jinto could sort of sympathize. Emery's friends still felt a little guilty about instigating Lafiel's experience with local drugs, they were somewhat protective of her now.

"So how long has this been going on?"

"Two and a half hours straight."

"Are you _kidding? _In this heat?"

"It's been a dry game too."

Jinto had heard of that. The really fanatical players would play an entire set without taking any liquids. It could be dangerous. "I wonder if we should go suggest they take a break."

"I did, the answer was no."

If Lafiel said no then there was not much point asking again. "Will they be done soon?"

"If she loses this game it's the match. She actually took the first two games, then he figured out he needed to take her seriously."

They both looked very serious indeed. No ground was being conceded either way. Was it Jinto's imagination or did Lafiel look a lot darker than before? Maybe she was just flushed. "That's the Abh for you, she's barely broken a sweat," he observed

"She was sweating plenty a while ago." They looked at each other silently for a moment. "Do you know if that's really bad... I mean, you know, for Abh."

"Well, it can't be good." Jinto was debating whether to intervene when Lafiel suddenly staggered. In the split-second that she was off-balance Brint's barely subsonic hit whipped right around the pole. She took the ball squarely in the face and went down. Brint was by her side in an instant. "Brint!" Jinto called, dashing over to him. People stepped aside quickly, understanding that he was a friend.

"Sunstroke," Brint said, not even looking up from his calm, methodical checking of her vitals. "I've already pinged for the med techs."

Jinto slaved his wristband to hers. "She's not in shock." A trail of blood seeped slowly from one nostril. Jinto felt faint, it was all he could do just to focus and to stave off panic. He prayed it was just a nosebleed from the impact, not something worse.

"But she's out cold," Brint said. When he saw what Jinto was doing he took his own hand from where he had been taking her pulse, that now being redundant. A bystander silently offered Brint a water-bottle, which he accepted and drained. Jinto glanced anxiously back and forth between Lafiel's face and her medical telemetry, looking for any sign of change for better or worse.

The techs showed up in less than a minute. A man and woman in white overalls emerged from the van and rushed a gurney over. Their small ambulance had room for just one civilian, as Lafiel's official medical proxy Jinto rode with her. By the time they arrived at the clinic, the techs already had her on a saline drip. The term "dry tournament" had immediately got them performing their standard procedure. Jinto could see text coming up on their screens. Much of it was beyond him but he did see some basic information like Lafiel's age, taken from her wristband data. They did not need to ask Jinto anything, they just occasionally told him that it did not look serious. They did not even comment on her being Abh, a fact that was even more obvious once they removed her headscarf and tiara.

The techs wheeled her quickly but calmly into the clinic. Reluctantly, Jinto respected the Operation Theater sign and watched Lafiel through a glass wall as she was treated by the techs and a white-haired man in scrubs who had been waiting for them. After just a few minutes he felt a hand on his arm. He exchanged a smile with Rosa. "So far so good," Jinto said softly. Brint was also there, hanging back a bit, looking worried. They must have begged or borrowed a scooter to get here this fast. Rosa just squeezed his arm gently but said nothing.

Shortly the white-haired man pulled his surgical mask down and emerged from the operating room. He addressed himself to the one who had accompanied the patient. "I'm doctor Cantor."

"Lin Jinto."

His homely face was vastly improved by a smile. "As expected, just heatstroke. The impact was minor, no concussion, nothing broken. There might be some light bruises. Her implants are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing."

That last bit was for Jinto's benefit. The doctor would know that as the medical proxy of an Abh Jinto had some basic knowledge of their unique physiology. The generic term "implants" covered a great variety of things, most of which was actually genetic mods and much of which was only known to medical practitioners who had taken a secrecy oath. "Thank you, doctor Cantor," Jinto said, almost faint from relief.

He nodded."We've given her a sedative, she'll most likely be sleeping for at least a couple of hours."

"I'd like to stay with her," Jinto said.

"Of course. We'll be wheeling her to a recovery room and putting her to bed straightaway."

When the doctor withdrew, Brint approached Jinto. The big man appeared to be in agony. "Jinto, I'm so sorry, I should never have let this happen."

Jinto felt odd putting a comforting hand on an arm that was bigger around than his own thigh. "Thanks for being there when she needed help, Brint."

"I just assumed she would be okay. I have no excuse."

"Trust me, when she wakes up she'll just thank you for a great game." He addressed himself to both Brint and Rosa. "Could you both please go tell everyone where Lafiel is and that she is going to be fine? I'd rather they hear it from you in person. Tell them watching Lafiel sleep is one of my hobbies and I'd rather not be disturbed. I'll call when she wakes."

The joke went over just passingly well, but they both agreed to leave Lafiel with him. He followed as the two med techs wheeled her to a small private room. He waited outside while they got her dressed and put to bed. When they let him in, the room lights had been dimmed and Lafiel was in bed with a cover up to her chest, wearing a patient's robe, her head on a slightly elevated pillow. She looked very peaceful now. A holo screen to the side showed her vitals, everything was in the green.

Jinto looked down at her for a couple of minutes. He reached out and gently stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. "Talk to me, Lafiel," he murmured. "What are you doing?"

Jinto found himself mesmerized by the flowing data displays that he only half understood. He gazed at it as if it could open up a window to the sleeping woman's soul. When the EEG danced with the indicators of REM sleep and her eyes moved under their lids, he tried to imagine the dreams that she would never remember.

After a while Thom came by just long enough to check up on them and deliver Jinto's clothes. It had hardly registered on Jinto that he was still in his swimming trunks, muscle shirt and sandals. He was sure everybody had wanted to come around, he could imagine Thom putting his foot down and assigning himself the detail.

Almost like clockwork, Lafiel woke up two and a half hours after she had been put to bed. Her eyes met his. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"Tired," Lafiel said in a sleepy voice. "How long was I asleep?"

"About three hours. Do you remember what happened?"

"Yes, I lost the match."

Jinto shook his head. He did not raise his voice... much. "Lafiel, I'm really resisting the urge to hit you. Be grateful."

"I'm sorry Jinto, I've spoiled your day."

"No you haven't, there are few things I would rather be doing than watch you sleep. I was just worried. I _am _worried. Why are you doing this to yourself?"

Lafiel looked like she was struggling for words. "I just feel so _restless_. It's like I want to do everything at once."

"This just doesn't seem like you. Are you sure there's not something we need to talk about?"

Lafiel hesitated. "Not now, Jinto. Can you give me some more time?"

"I'll give you all the time you need, Lafiel. I just want you to enjoy yourself while you're here, that's all."

"I am. Even right now. Today was really exhilarating. I held my own against a superior player."

"No denying you really went the distance."

"I know everyone must have been worried. I'd like to apologize to them."

"Nobody is looking for an apology Lafiel, but I'm sure they'd like to see you. Can I call and let them know that you're awake?"

"Please do."

It was a few minutes before they showed up. Jinto for one was relieved, he was afraid everyone had been waiting right here at the clinic. It was just the Kamrau family and Brint, presumably by agreement to keep this from growing into a delegation.

Lafiel did apologize formally, but she was in higher spirits now. "I know you must be an experienced player, Brint. Thank you for indulging the selfish demands of a beginner."

Brint still looked just a little awkward, but relieved. "Not at all, I'm really glad to see you looking so well. You played a killer game, I just about passed out myself. Still a bit wobbly on my feet."

"It was a really special experience, I'll never forget it."

Brint chuckled. "It don't mean we're engaged or anything," he quipped.

"Oh!" Lafiel brought a hand up to her face. "Is mixed tether-ball a courtship ritual here? I meant no offense."

The Kamrau clan absolutely lost it. Jinto hoped the walls were soundproof. He felt really sorry for Brint, the poor man had already been feeling badly enough. A short time later Jinto suggested it was time to go. "The doctor said you should get some more sleep. You're going to do that, aren't you?"

"Yes, I promise."

Outside the clinic, they said goodbye to Brint and made their way to the hotel. "Poor guy," Emery said. "The girls really ripped a piece out of him, let me tell you."

"Not really his fault," Jinto said. "Saying no to Lafiel is pretty tough. It's something I need to learn to do more."

"At least this way she got a lesson her body will understand," Thom said.

Beth, walking arm in arm with her husband in the cooling evening air, had an impish smile. "I'm just glad I won't be anywhere nearby the next time she gets a look in the mirror, though."

Thom chuckled. "Too right."

# # # #

Doctor Cantor was ready to close up the clinic for the evening when his desk buzzer sounded. "The Kamrau house guest is here," his receptionist said. That was how they had been discreetly referring to the Abriel patient. "She insists on seeing you."

That was her code word for _It's something the med techs can handle if you don't feel like staying late. _Normally he would just send her to the techs, but this was a bit of a special case for a number of reasons. And he got the impression she was not used to taking no for an answer. "Send her in," he said.

The door slid open and Lady Paryun stepped in. She had taken the white hooded robe from her room and had thoroughly wrapped herself in it. He could barely see her eyes under the hood. Walking quickly, she hopped straight up onto the examination table and without preamble anxiously said "Doctor, I've burned my skin."

"Sunburn? Let's have a look." He got up and walked over to her. She held the front of her robe together tightly with her hand, and he got the distinct impression she wanted it to stay that way. He contented himself with turning on his pen-light and using it to have a good look at her lower face. It was a rich chocolate brown color. "Well, you did get some sun but it doesn't appear burned." He gently probed with his finger. "Is it sensitive to the touch?"

"No, it just feels a little warm," she said, sounding no less anxious.

"It's really not possible for an Abh to get a sunburn on this planet, My Lady. Your skin was able to deploy pigment long before there was any damage. If this was the first time you were exposed directly to the sun all day then what you are seeing is normal. After exposure has ceased, over a number of weeks the pigment will be lost and your skin will revert to its original color. There's nothing to worry about."

"That's good, but... well, just _look_!" She flung her hood back and opened the front of her robe. Her pointed ears and forehead were lily white, as was the skin below a line going around her neck.

Doctor Cantor nodded. "Only the exposed skin actually produces pigment, My Lady. This is normal."

"But I look ridiculous! Is there really nothing you can do?"

"I can't remove the pigment. But if you want to remove the tan lines, there is something we can do. Just give me a moment." He went to his desk and consulted the drug inventory. "Yes, I do have a couple of doses." He called one up and walked over to the dispensary across the room. By the time he reached it the little door slid open and a robot arm deposited the ampule on the shelf. He took it and confirmed it was the correct one. "This was actually designed for Abh who were going to be working in high-UV environments. It will trigger the full release of melanin, which is what causes the dark color. After one injection it would be done in eight to ten hours."

Lady Paryun looked horrified. "You mean... I would be even _darker?_"

"Your face would be a couple of shades darker than it is now. But the melanin would be released on all the skin, not just where you have been exposed. The tan lines would disappear. It would not take any longer to fade either, just a few weeks."

She looked as if he had just told her she has terminal cancer. "Is there really no other option to get all my skin the same color?"

"The only other way to get the same effect would be to sunbathe in the nude for an entire day."

It was several seconds before she responded. "So that was just the one injection?"

"Yes, just the one."

Looking very much like a condemned prisoner, she rolled up her sleeve.

# # # #

There was nothing on his wristband, but on the coffee table Jinto found a paper with another note in Lafiel's precise handwriting. _Go to breakfast, I'll meet you there._ The privacy light was still shining on her bedroom door. Jinto rather approved of using the very old-fashioned medium for a note, it was rather in keeping with the retro theme of the event. There might be hope for her yet. Having received his marching orders, he proceeded to the hotel restaurant. He exchanged greetings with the other four of their group, already assembled. "She left a note telling me she'd meet us here, hopefully at the time she said."

"I'm still wondering why so late," Emery said. "You'd think she got enough sleep yesterday."

"So you still haven't seen her?" Shyori said.

"No. I still don't know how she got past me when she came back from the clinic last night. I was holding vigil in our lounge, but I come back from the bathroom and suddenly her door is locked and there's a note saying late breakfast tomorrow. Was she listening at the door or something?"

"She didn't need to." Thom grinned at the blank looks he got. "Did she hang a spare tiara in the room?"

"Yes, she always does."

"She can slave that to the one she's wearing. Not full-spectrum but still basic motion sensing."

"You mean she was _spying _on me? I'm going to put that thing in a drawer."

"I wouldn't advise that. Anyone but her touches it, alarm signals go out to local police, territorial government and any in-system military bases."

"It would be nice of her to tell me that."

"That's just a basic rule of living with women," Beth said. "You don't touch their stuff. Not unless they give you something to fix for them."

"Does that cut both ways?" Jinto asked.

Beth laughed. "Hell no, what's ours is ours and what's yours is negotiable."

Jinto sighed. "I just hope she's not too upset."

"Don't worry, we've got the perfect fix," Shyori said. "Emery and I can take her to the nudist colony. One day of carefully managed sunbathing and presto no more tan lines." She really seemed to be looking forward to that, too.

"So who would be managing her tanning?" Emery asked.

"Me, of course," Shyori said brightly. "I'm an expert."

Emery pinched her white skin. "Physician, tan thyself."

"Those who cannot do, teach."

"I hate to put a damper on your plans," Beth said in a soft voice that still carried, "but I think that has become redundant redundant."

Jinto turned to follow her gaze. They all watched in silence as Lafiel approached and sat down without a word. She looked very much like a condemned prisoner.

"Good morning, My Lady," Emery said tentatively. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, thank you," Lafiel said listlessly.

Jinto decided to just come out and say it. "Lafiel, you look a lot darker than you did yesterday. Are you really okay?"

She nodded. "The doctor gave me something to release melanin. It got rid of the tan lines." Her head bowed down even further. "I wasn't expecting the result to be quite so... dramatic."

Lafiel was actually darker than Beth now. With her light-blue hair and cream-colored shirt, shorts and head scarf, the result was very striking.

"It seems the Empire's environmental data on Delktou is not quite right," Thom said.

"It is entirely accurate," Lafiel said. "It said my skin would not be damaged, which is true. It did not mention exactly how it would react to the exposure."

"Well, I guess the Space Force data isn't a tourist guide," Shyori said. "All they care is that you don't get burned."

"Quite right." Lafiel managed a little smile. "Thom, perhaps I could offer my first piece of advice regarding your plans to have Abh vacationing here. You will need to inform them of the need for sun block."

Thom nodded. "Duly noted. It was an oversight on my part too. My apologies."

"Not at all. While staying here I have come to appreciate the aesthetics of skin pigmentation. There are many women who wear it to great effect. I fear I am not one of them."

A waiter came by and took their orders. "So what did I miss last night?" Lafiel asked when he had departed.

"Comedy night," Jinto said. "It's probably just as well. Most of the jokes would not have translated very well."

"I'm sorry that I had to leave you to attend alone."

"I was probably attracting a lot of sympathy. People would be assuming we had a lover's quarrel."

To his surprise Lafiel's lips spread into a big smile. "Maybe you should have just set up a life-sized doll next to you."

Thom got a good laugh out of that, clearly he had heard the story. The rest were puzzled. "I'm almost afraid to ask," Emery said.

Lafiel had a great time telling the story of when she had to pretend she was a doll. Jinto could have done without hearing it again, but he was glad to see Lafiel was having fun with it.

They spent a bit of time explaining to Lafiel what stand-up comedy was like. Thom and Beth both had a few jokes that translated perfectly well into Baronh. The two of them even had a comedy duo routine that they ran through. For a while theirs was the noisiest table in the restaurant.

When they were done eating, Shyori suggested they hit the beach right away. "After all, it's not like you can get any darker," she said to Lafiel. "Face it, you've got nothing to lose. Besides, I still think you look stunning."

Lafiel took the compliment with a grateful if ironic smile. She let some of her long hair run through her fingers. "I'm beginning to think this is the real problem now. It was a perfect match for my skin before, now it looks like a wig."

"The bitter irony," Jinto said. "The skin gets darker as the hair gets lighter."

Lafiel frowned. "Lighter? What do you mean?"

Her tone demanded an immediate, full answer. "Well, the sun can also bleach hair," he said awkwardly.

"It does? It did?" Lafiel grabbed the ends of some of her hair. Her eyes crossed as she brought it up close to her face. "Really? You're right, it is lighter!"

"Well, just a little..." Jinto deceased under the withering glare of the other women at the table. _In Minchu this is what we called 'scoring an own goal'._

"But my hair was the perfect color! Now I'll have to wait for it to grow out again, that will take forever." Lafiel looked lost in thought. "Maybe I should dye it. I've done that before, after all."

"I figure you should just go for broke and let it bleach all it can," Shyori said. "Let it go white if that's what it wants, that would really look great."

Emery cuffed her. "It's not going to go white," she said soothingly. "By the time your skin is back to its old color, your hair will be too."

"Is there anything else direct sunlight will do?" Lafiel asked anxiously. She put both hands to her cheeks. "What about my eyes, could they change color?"

"Not a bit," Beth assured her. "You're going to look like an islander for a while, My Lady. While you've got it, wear that look with pride."

That seemed to resonate with Lafiel. She gave Beth a fond smile. "You are right. I will stand before this star and accept whatever mark it puts upon me. I am its kin after all."

That was accepted as a suggestion for everyone to spend the morning on the beach.

# # # #

Lafiel read her chronometer and saw that she had been trying to get to sleep for more than an hour. She debated taking a sleeping pill. She had not been having any trouble adjusting to the twenty-seven hour day, but it seemed the evening sleep after her sunstroke yesterday had thrown off her circadian rhythm.

_It is clear tonight. The last time I went to look at the stars, it led to a happy result._

Lafiel dressed in shorts, shirt and headscarf and walked out of the hotel. The streets were all but deserted. They were still well lit, and very few stars were visible. It seemed that if Lafiel wanted to see more than a handful of scattered high-magnitude stars she would need to go elsewhere. Looking down she could see that the beach was also well lit. In fact there were lights under the water for the benefit of the late-night swimmers. She decided to walk in the other direction. The parts of town that climbed into the hills looked a bit darker, perhaps there would be a nice venue there.

To her surprise, the amount of activity around her increased as she climbed. Some eating and drinking establishments were still open, and people were wandering about in pairs and groups. She had been told that everyone on the island lived according to Delktou's rotation. It was hard to believe this number of people were suffering from insomnia. Perhaps they just preferred the cool of the night to the heat of the day.

Lafiel came to a fork in the increasingly steep road and debated which way to go. Her froth detected somebody approaching from behind. She turned around to look. A trim, brown-skinned black-haired young man in an open shirt and white slacks smiled and stopped near her. He said something in Delktou and her translator said "You look lost, pretty lady."

"I am not looking for any place in particular, I am just out for a stroll." Her wristband speaker gave the translation.

"You speak Baronh?" he said in her own tongue, slightly accented but fluent. "I figured you were from off-planet. Are you here on vacation?"

Lafiel found it odd being asked such a question by a stranger, but she understood that was not considered impolite here. "Yes, I am staying with a host family for several weeks."

"That's righteous! Looks like you're having some trouble with our long days, am I right?"

"That's right. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go see the stars."

"I know a good place you can do that, let me take you."

"I don't want to trouble you, if you could just point me in the right direction."

"It's just about five minutes away but it's kind of hard to find if you don't know where to go. Don't worry, we're proud of our island, we love showing people the best places."

Lafiel wanted to decline without giving offense, but there was no obvious way. If he took her some place she was not comfortable with, Lafiel reasoned she could claim fatigue from yesterday's sunstroke and return to her hotel. "Thank you, that is very kind."

He indicated the left fork. "This way." They started walking. "I'm Riko, by the way, local businessman."

Lafiel was not comfortable giving her own name. Her title was not well known outside the Abh nobility, perhaps that would do. "You can call me Paryun."

"Land of Roses? That's radical, I like it! Where are you from?"

Lafiel decided to just avoid the question. "I am something of a cosmopolitan, the galaxy is my home."

"I see... the interstellar lady of mystery. That's okay, I have a weakness for people with secrets. Why don't you tell me what you've been doing for excitement while you're here? Maybe I can suggest things you're missing out on."

Lafiel kept her narrative as simple and generic as she could, just mentioning the things that any tourist would be likely to do. She became a bit concerned when they came to what looked like the edge of town and continued down a dimly lit road going into the jungle. But as soon as they topped a ridge still in sight of town, she found that immediately below them on the opposite slope to their left was a modest open-sided building built on stilts, also dimly lit. She could hear the sound of many people talking inside, it sounded like a crowded party. There were a few people seated at outdoor tables where the building met the hillside.

"My favorite dark, quiet intimate place," Riko said as they approached. "Inside is always a bit noisy but I like the patio. The hill hides the town so the stars are always beautiful here."

The trees around the patio had been cleared, and the only lights were dim ones in the floor, so it was in fact a good place to see the stars. When she glanced back at Riko she could see that he had been smiling at her the whole time. "The look on your face said, 'that's my home'."

Of course the stars were her home, but somehow she did not want to talk about that. "You appear very much at home right here, Riko."

"My business takes me to the mainland sometimes, but the island always pulls me back." He pointed at the long bar which separated the patio from the building interior and served both. "What are you drinking?"

"Thank you, I would rather not."

"Nonsense, I can tell you always enjoy life. Please, anything you want, I insist."

"Well, let me see..." While she feigned indecision Lafiel once again hunted for some way to decline without giving offense. She was certain now he saw her as a potential romantic encounter and did not want to lead him on either. Lafiel realized now she was in unknown territory in a number of different ways. Perhaps there was a way... Thom had told her about a local drink he described as poisonous. She smiled sweetly. "Would you join me in a glass of Norton's Black?"

His face lit up. "You clearly know your rum, Paryun! Well, you're in the right place, they always stock it here. I'll go get us a bottle." He walked over to the bar. Lafiel sighed. His reaction to her suggestion was the opposite of what she had hoped. Well, if things really got awkward maybe she could just say that she's married. As she understood, that would more or less put her off limits.

Riko came back with a bottle and two glasses. He poured a generous amount of the double-potency dark spiced rum into both glasses, sat down and raised his. "To living dangerously. Cheers!"

Lafiel clinked her glass against his. "Cheers." She tossed it back and placed the empty glass back on the table. Riko did likewise without hesitation or comment. Unexpectedly that appeared to be the accepted way to drink it. She could see why there was no point savoring it, the taste was wretched and it burned a trail right down her throat.

Riko enthusiastically filled their glasses again. "I'm impressed, not many ladies can handle the real stuff like you do. You'd put most _men_ to shame."

If he was intending to have a drinking contest, unless he had some genetic mods that were not showing he was going to lose spectacularly. "I should warn you, I have a high tolerance."

He raised his glass and grinned. "Just another thing we have in common, Paryun."

They both tossed back a second glass. Lafiel was becoming very annoyed at how her every action was having the exact opposite effect from what she was aiming for. Was she really going to have to drink him under the table before he would be discouraged?

After a few more quick rounds Lafiel was mostly listening to a free-ranging monologue that was becoming increasingly slurred. He was also swaying a little, Lafiel wondered if he would even be able to stand. Really fearing for his health now, Lafiel told him she'd had enough. He accepted that, but when Lafiel continued to give vague, minimal answers to his questions about her he reverted to his own monologue about everything and nothing. He was complaining a lot of how business had suffered on the islands since the enclaves of Imperial citizens established themselves. There were now too many monied interests who had no respect for island traditions. Lafiel had already talked to enough people on the island to know this was a complaint aired mostly be people who balked at doing business with people they had not known since childhood. She just listened politely, there was little point in debating political economy with somebody this much the worse for drink.

At length two large men walked casually from the building onto the patio. They approached and one of them said something to Riko in Delktou that Lafiel's tiara translated as a familiar greeting.

Riko enthusiastically replied in kind. Presumably these men did not understand Baronh, so Lafiel had to rely on her translator. "Boys! I am absolutely smitten! Here is an interstellar lady of mystery who can drink rum like nobody I have ever met!"

"Are these friends of yours?" Lafiel asked as a gentle prodding to somebody who was perhaps too distracted to realize introductions were in order.

"Two of my employees, actually," he continued, still speaking Delktou.

They both pulled over chairs and sat down, something that made Lafiel very uncomfortable. "Has she really been matching you drink for drink?" the second big man asked, eying her rather rudely.

Riko nodded. "Can you believe it? Gorgeous, dark and drinks like a fish, I can't believe she's not an islander!"

The first man laughed. "Riko, I think you've been had. No human can out-drink you. Can't you tell just looking at her? She's been lifted." Lafiel's translator footnoted a slang word for genetic mods.

"No kidding?" Riko said. He eyed her intensely, looking both less inebriated and less enthusiastic now. "Is that true, Paryun?"

Lafiel felt it was time for her to leave. "Yes, it is. I told you that I have a high tolerance, and that is the reason. I think I have already imposed too much on your hospitality tonight, Riko. Please let me pick up the bar tab, it is the least I can do."

He pointed at her as if to emphasize his next words. "You know, that's exactly what I was talking about before, Paryun. People coming here from off-planet, they figure they can buy their way into anything and buy their way out of anything. But there's one thing you can't buy and sell, and that thing is respect."

"I agree, nothing is more important than to respect each other. Have I shown you disrespect in any way, Riko?"

His face lit up with its previous enthusiasm and he laughed. "Brilliant too! I am totally in love! See, she gets it, she knows exactly what the problem is!"

"I think she was playing games with you, Riko," the second big man said. "If you ask me, she owes you a lap dance."

As Lafiel scanned her translator's footnote, she felt the look on her face harden. She rose from the table. "I will be leaving now," she said softly but emphatically.

The three men stood up together. "Did I say we were done?" Riko asked. His employees, or whoever they really were, stepped to each side of Lafiel. She glanced over at the man tending bar. He was pointedly ignoring what was happening. It appeared she would get no help from that quarter.

Lafiel considered her options. Everything she had done to end or defuse this situation had failed. She was out of her element, that was clear. If these men molested her in any way it would become a major incident. The Empire would demand and receive their extradition and they would never be seen again. Her host family would likely also suffer. She had to avoid that at any cost. Lafiel made her decision. She touched her armband and it made a brief but loud alarm. The faces of the three men hardened. They clearly knew what that meant. "I have called for peace officers," Lafiel said to remove any doubt. "If you have any complaint about my behavior tonight then we can discuss the matter with them."

Riko's face twisted in rage. "Peace officers don't come out here, you fucking cunt!"

"What did you call me?" Lafiel scanned the translator's notes. "Oh, I see. Vulgar reference to fornication becomes an insult." She gave him a very special smile. "Now I have another reason to dislike you, Riko. Fair warning, the last man I said that to was dead a few hours later."

The man on her right moved to grab her arm. She quickly evaded. "If you touch me you will regret it!" she shouted. They were probably lying about peace officers not coming but she had to assume there might not be any help coming, at least not right away. Her froth showed the man behind her closing quickly. She reacted without thinking. Her foot came out and connected solidly with his solar plexus. _Temporarily disabled. _She ducked under a punch thrown by the man in front of her, going into a low crouch. The Abh strove for elegance in all things, but the style of unarmed combat taught at the academy was a brutally practical one. From her current position the target was obvious. Her arms came up and flattened his man-parts against his pelvic bone. _Paralyzed. _Without looking or thinking she did a leg-sweep where Riko was charging from behind. _Down but not disabled._ She spun around and shot to her feet, uncertain whether fight or flight was the best option.

"BREAK IT UP!"

All motion ceased in response to that deep, commanding voice. The owner of the voice strode onto the dark patio from the pathway. He was a relatively short, balding man with a substantial paunch, dressed in a white uniform and cap. The equipment on his black utility belt included a stun gun similar to the one Lafiel had been issued in the hybrid compound. His hand was resting casually on it, something that looked perfectly natural rather than threatening. His voice had surged with righteous anger but even in the dark Lafiel could see that his round face held little more than the annoyance one might see in a parent approaching a misbehaving child. When he stopped to look down at Riko, he actually smiled. "Hello Riko," he said in a pleasant voice that held just a hint of vitriol. "I wish I could say it's been a while but as usual it hasn't been long enough." He spoke in Baronh, Lafiel wondered if that was for her benefit.

Riko got clumsily to his feet. "This foreign woman assaulted us," he slurred.

"Nice try, I've got the whole thing on drone camera. Now shut your mouth while I ask the real victim what she wants us to do with you."

He looked at Lafiel. "Miss, are you hurt?" Looking closer, Lafiel could see the emblem of the Moruweka police force on his cap.

"No, I am not," Lafiel said.

"Do you wish to press charges against these men?"

Lafiel shook her head. "No, I believe we just had an unfortunate misunderstanding."

"Fair enough." He shifted his gaze and switched to Delktou. "How about you two? The young lady says this was just a misunderstanding, does that work for you?"

The man Lafiel had kicked was still on the floor wheezing. But apparently he had recovered enough to understand what was being said. He nodded emphatically. The other man just lay on the ground, his hands clutching his privates, his eyes bulging, drool coming down from his gaping mouth.

"I'll take that as a yes," the officer said pleasantly. "Miss, can I escort you back into town?"

"Thank you officer, I would appreciate that."

"Very good." He turned and beamed a toothy smile at Riko. "This is your lucky day Riko, you get off with nothing worse than paying the bar tab."

Lafiel walked beside the officer as he led them back to the main road. When they were out of earshot of the bar, he said "Just want to confirm, you're feeling okay?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Good. I'm Lieutenant Dersiak."

"I am-"

"Abriel Lafiel, I know."

She looked at him. "I sent an anonymous distress call, and I don't believe we have met."

"Thom asked me to look out for you."

Lafiel's eyes went wide in surprise. "You know Kamrau Thom?"

Dersiak smiled pleasantly. "Yep, we go way back. Yesterday I had a chat with him and your young friend."

She assumed he meant Jinto. "So you have been following me?"

"Our drones picked you up as soon as you left the resort. When they advised me where you were headed, that's when I followed. Standard VIP treatment."

"I don't know what to say, Lieutenant. You and Thom may very well have saved my life. Was that man a criminal?"

"Riko? Criminal is too energetic a role for him. More a jack of all trades who has forgotten a lot of laws when it's convenient for him. I'm sure he was just out for some cheap fun at your expense."

"I am grateful you were able to intervene."

Dersiak walked in silence for a moment. "I'm sure Thom must have asked you to talk with him before going out on your own."

Lafiel pursed her lips. "Yes, he did," she said softly. "I just wanted to see the stars." As soon as she said it, the excuse sounded so pathetic.

Dersiak laughed. "That's probably good, it narrowed the range of places that little thug could have taken you. There are plenty rougher bars than that one. Thom could have told you the areas to avoid. So could any guidebook for that matter."

Lafiel was utterly crestfallen. For lack of taking simple precautions, she had put herself and the people around her in danger. "I could easily have avoided the danger I put myself in. I was not looking for trouble, but I know that is no excuse."

The policeman looked thoughtful for a moment. "I hear a lot of people say they weren't looking for trouble, usually right after they walked into trouble with eyes wide open. More often than not it turns out they were beating themselves up over something, even if they didn't know it."

Lafiel thought about that for a while. "I realize now the exact point when I was no longer able to avoid that fight," Lafiel said. "It was when they realized that I am a genetically modified outsider. They thought I don't belong here. I am wondering if they may be right."

"Only idiots like Riko think the contents of your genome or how you were born has anything to do with where you do or don't belong," the Lieutenant said in a way that chastised her for harboring such an idea.

Lafiel contemplated her hand, darkened by both sun and medicine. "My body has adapted to the local conditions. I was upset about that, but it was just doing what I refused to do. Thom was giving me this same lesson all along, I have to learn the lay of the land."

"If you just mind which strangers you walk into bars with, I'm sure you'll do fine."

She thought back again to his earlier statement. "I think you were right about my being upset with myself, Lieutenant. There are things I thought I was facing bravely, when all the while I was turning away out of cowardice."

He smiled. "Something an Abriel would fear? I think I'll sleep better not knowing about it."

Lafiel smiled back. "Then I shall not bore you with the details."

"Well, if you got something out of your system then maybe tonight was not a complete loss for you."

Lafiel made note of the corner they had just turned. "If I might make an observation on the lay of the land, I see you are leading me back to my hotel. Will I need to go to your office tomorrow and make any sort of statement about this incident?"

"Not now and probably not ever. If any of those idiots want to press charges, the judge will take one look at the drone camera recording and have a good laugh." His expression sobered somewhat. "When I tell Thom, I'm sure he's going to sit you down and give you a good long lecture. He'll likely tell you that he can't trust you to go out on your own any more."

Lafiel nodded curtly, taking the judgment without complaint. "I understand."

His mouth spread into a wide grin. "But if I don't tell him until after you've left the island, I'm sure he'll have a good laugh and buy me a drink. I like that option a lot better." They stopped at an intersection. "I'm sure you can find your way home now, you don't want to show up with a policeman in tow."

Lafiel smiled warmly. "You are a fine officer and gentleman, Lieutenant Dersiak. I promise you that neither your counsel nor your generosity will be wasted on me. Thank you for all your help today."

"My pleasure, Miss."

When she got to her room, Lafiel downloaded and reviewed an Oakuri guidebook. The problem was clear to her now. The comfort of this place, and the good company, it had all been making her passive and complaisant. That had to change, beginning with the small things in the here and now. She would start by taking the initiative on this excursion instead of expecting her hosts to lead her around all the time. She wanted to surprise Jinto and take him some place he was not expecting, perhaps some place where they could talk.

This establishment called Dark Sodom looked interesting. He might enjoy that.

End Chapter 5


	6. Chapter 6

**Furlough**

**A Banner of the Stars Story**

Chapter 6 – Continuity

Lafiel was woken by a gentle knock at her bedroom door. It took her just a moment to get her bearings. They were back at the Kamrau house. Having an idea who was at the door, she did not bother putting on a robe. She noted the time, still an hour before sunrise. "Low light," she ordered. The lights came up enough to see by and she walked to the door.

The lounge was also dimly lit. Beth was already in her colorful swimsuit. Her smile radiated joy and anticipation. "Good morning, My Lady," she said in a hushed tone.

"Good morning, Beth." Lafiel answered, also in a low voice. She smiled. "Is it time?"

"Yes. Chisha's water broke just a while ago."

"She has such impeccable timing. One moment, I'll be out shortly."

Lafiel changed into her swimsuit, met Beth out in the hallway and walked with her down to the beach. The woman who was about to become a grandmother radiated a youthful energy that Lafiel had not seen before. Her excitement was infectious. Lafiel said nothing. She told herself she would treat this as a ceremony she was being invited to observe.

They had said little about what to expect. Lafiel had been wrestling with a disquieting image of the expectant mother just being floated out to sea and then being expected to offer her newborn up to shifting waters. She was relieved to see that considerable preparation had been made. A small portable breakwater had been set up to calm the waters in the place just off the beach where Chisha lay in a yellow floatation device that looked to be designed just for this purpose. She was surrounded by Mari, Emery, Shyori and the midwife. All the beach floodlights were on, as were additional lights on the breakwater and the platform.

"My first water birth was a bit more rough and ready than this," Beth said as the two of them descended the stairs together. "When Thom found out he insisted that any more water births in this household would have the full equipment set in place." That left Lafiel wondering just what an ocean birth without this equipment would be like.

The medical technician was a short, dark-skinned woman who could have been close to Beth's age. She was seated on the same floatation device and the others stood around them in waist-deep water. Like them, she was just in a swimsuit. _There would be little point to wearing sterile gear after all._

When told about this water birth tradition, Lafiel had grilled the family about the potential dangers. She knew this was a terraformed ocean with managed flora and fauna, but it was still in what Lafiel would regard as a wild state. It seemed to her this was inviting all manner of infection. She had been doing some of her own reading, and was surprised to find that the technology here for dealing with parasitic microbes was in many ways superior to that used by her own people. They had an entire engineered planet full of mutating microorganisms that they had been taming for centuries. The family assured her there was no danger. They even claimed that this sort of early exposure helped develop the infant's immune system. In the very unlikely event there was any complication, an air ambulance was just minutes away.

Lafiel and Beth strode out into the warm, still water to join the others. Lafiel now saw that the women were there for at least one thing beyond moral support. There were handles all around the open-bottom platform where Chisha and the midwife faced each other across water that was further calmed by the surrounding platform. The women were gently holding the platform in place. Lafiel was directed to a space directly to Chisha's right and Beth to her left. Beth greeted the smiling expectant mother and bent to give her a kiss. She took and held Chisha's hand.

Chisha turned and smiled at Lafiel. "Thank you for coming, My Lady."

Lafiel understood that she had just been given a place of honor and responsibility. She took Chisha's other hand. "This is a great honor for me, Chisha. Let me give you whatever aid and comfort I can."

"I never thought a Princess of the Empire would come see the birth of my first child."

"I am not here as an Abriel, but as your friend." She squeezed Chisha's hand gently. "That being so, you shall call me Lafiel." She swept her gaze across the other women gathered around, extending her behest to them. They seemed to understand.

The platform had Chisha reclined half-submerged in the water. She had the top of a bathing suit on, and a wide black elastic belt across her upper abdomen. There was a rather ingenious box by which the midwife could monitor the birth through a glass-bottomed viewer rather than through the water surface. She also had a number of holo monitors, including what looked like an ultrasound image, presumably from sensors in the belt. She watched over mother and child with a look that had both warmth and quiet confidence. What might have started as an old tradition had clearly been hybridized with an array of technology from simple to sophisticated.

Before coming here Lafiel had never met a woman who was bearing a child. The practice was not unknown among the Abh nobility but was regarded as at best rather eccentric. In the Abriel clan it was virtually unheard of. Even such eccentrics would use in-vitro fertilization to facilitate the genetic mods. Lafiel had not asked but she got the impression that natural conception was also the common practice here. Lafiel still felt a bit uncomfortable thinking about it. This all just seemed so recklessly _random_ somehow, throwing such an important matter to chance. Perhaps she was projecting her own feelings about her father's choice to introduce a number of random elements into her own genome. One of the results was that her ear points were shorter than normal for an Abriel, something she still resented.

The women chatted occasionally, but for the most part they just held silent vigil. At length Chisha's face screwed up and she grunted, squeezing Lafiel's hand. _A contraction. They told me to expect this. _Lafiel took Beth's lead and put a comforting hand on Chisha's shoulder. The midwife looked up to Chisha. "Coming along just fine," she said soothingly, the first time Lafiel had actually heard her speak.

As the coming dawn slowly lit the bay, the contractions came more frequently. At length, the midwife administered some medication and asked Chisha to start pushing hard. She did, again and again. At times she was crying out with her effort. It was all Lafiel could do not to voice any alarm, but everybody else just happily continued to speak quiet words of encouragement. Lafiel had to assume this was all normal.

The sun was now up, hidden behind light clouds. It seemed to Lafiel the labor was going on forever, now she was starting to worry. She could see Chisha's resolve flagging. When the midwife would give her another gentle entreaty that she needed to push harder, Chisha would just shake her head and go on panting heavily. Lafiel tried to break through the midwife's poker face. The med tech did not look concerned yet. But Lafiel had a strong impression this was taking longer than it should. She joined the others in giving Chisha gentle words of encouragement, but it did not seem to be sinking in. Lafiel debated what to do. She could see a different approach was needed, but was it really her place to decide that? She had been given an implicit position of responsibility at Chisha's side, but did that really give her license to take control?

Lafiel was quickly running out of patience. She made her decision. Lafiel bent down over Chisha's freely sweating face. "Chisha! Listen to me! You are a proud islander and this is your battlefield!" Chisha looked at her with eyes full of bewilderment.

In her periphery vision and froth sense Lafiel could sense Emery reaching out to her, with surprise and alarm in her body language. "Lafiel, don't-"

Lafiel pressed on. "You brought me out here to see your child born and that is what I expect you to show me, Kamrau Chisha!" She brought her head down next to Chisha's so they were both looking down at her extended belly. "I've extracted and flown my ship away from an opening that should have crushed it flat, this is nothing by comparison. Listen, you are now my pilot. No pilot of mine is going to be defeated by her baby's cranium, do you hear me? Now, on my mark! One, two, three, PUSH!"

Chisha let out a defiant scream and convulsed. She nearly crushed Lafiel's hand. Lafiel heard Beth grunt as she got the same treatment. Chisha collapsed, her head turned toward Lafiel. Her hot, labored breath passed across Lafiel's face and played with her hair.

The midwife raised her eyebrows and smiled. "That's more like it dear," she said happily. "A couple more like that and we'll be done in no time."

It took more than a couple more. For the last one, Lafiel was almost shouting in Chisha's ear. Her strength was all but spent, Lafiel had to coax it out of her. She shuddered violently but in utter silence as every last bit of resolve was thrown into one final effort. This time she did look utterly spent. Lafiel held her closely and looked anxiously at the med tech.

"I guess it's fair to tell you now," the midwife said gently. "You have a little boy!"

Lafiel had quite forgotten that only the midwife knew the gender of the baby until now. She had not been thinking this far ahead. She was barely aware of everybody congratulating the new mother, Lafiel was entirely focused on her exhausted friend. "You did well," she murmured. "I am proud of you."

"Thank you, Lafiel," she breathed, closing her eyes and bringing their foreheads together. "I thought I couldn't do it, I just couldn't. It felt so... it felt impossible."

"The impossible just takes a little longer, Chisha."

The midwife kept Chisha's son under the water for what Lafiel felt was an alarming amount of time. She understood that he was still receiving oxygenated blood from his mother and that this was really the point of a water birth. But it was disturbing to watch the boy moving around when he was still under the water. The midwife kept close tabs on him, but mostly he was allowed to float freely in the water. Lafiel had to wonder, were they really expecting to teach the boy to swim before he had even drawn breath?

To Lafiel's relief, the midwife finally announced it was time. She did something to the platform and it rose enough so that Chisha was out of the water. In short order she had her new son at her breast. Lafiel said nothing more, letting the family bask in the joy and pride of seeing their next generation come into the world. For the first time ever Lafiel was seeing four generations of the same family come together in one place. If such a thing ever happened among her own people it would be nothing but an odd coincidence, perhaps noted in passing by somebody as they just happened to gather in the same place at the same time. It would mean little, yet here it meant everything. The Abh had traditions, titles and duties. Everybody else had families.

The midwife now went to work with the last phases of the birth, separating and saving the umbilical and checking the health of mother and son. They all pushed the platform over to the beach and helped Chisha onto the waiting walker where the midwife had set up everything she needed to get them cleaned up and dressed.

Everyone else stepped away for a while to give them some peace and privacy. Mari took Lafiel's arm and smiled at her. She looked tired, this must have been a real ordeal for somebody her age. "Lafiel, thank you for taking charge. You really gave Chisha courage."

"Chisha already has courage, Mari. I just reminded her, that's all." But Lafiel was grateful and relieved to hear Mari's words. With the crisis done, Lafiel had been starting to wonder if perhaps she had overstepped her bounds by taking control of what was a private family matter. She had been invited only to observe, after all. Now Lafiel found herself the center of attention for a while as the others echoed Mari's sentiments. Lafiel was very happy to receive their praise and gratitude. But she could not help but contrast what this event meant to them with her own actions. They saw this as another step in the continuity of life, something sacred. Lafiel had treated it as a mission. And yet, quite naturally and effortlessly, they were welcoming her as if she were no less a part of the family than they. It was difficult not to be drawn in. For all that, Lafiel could not help but wonder. Could they really not see it? Did they really not understand that she was a stranger here?

At length the midwife stood at the railing of the walker platform, smiling down at them. "We're ready to take her inside now." Mari was invited to join her granddaughter and the newborn on the walker, and the rest of them followed on foot as they climbed up to the house. The maid robot had a wheelchair waiting at the front door. Chisha was helped into it and the midwife placed the newborn back into her arms. They all filed through the open glass doors into the big open foyet. "We'll take the child to see his father now," the midwife said, something that it appeared everybody had been expecting. Just before she was wheeled away by the midwife and the maid robot, Chisha gave Lafiel a look and a smile that stabbed at her heart. Words of thanks would have been redundant. Lafiel watched them disappear down the corridor, strangely reluctant to let them go.

Something occurred to Lafiel. "Had they decided what name to give if they had a boy?"

"If so, they're not telling," Emery said.

"I expect they have," Beth said. "They both believe in planning ahead, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Lafiel was gratified to hear that some part of bringing the new child into the world was being done privately by the parents. Support from the family was all well and good, but this was really their day.

Shyori grinned at Lafiel. "If it turned out to be a girl I think Chisha was all ready to name her after you."

"Then I am relieved that I will not be receiving such an undeserved honor."

"Honey!" Beth cried. Lafiel turned to see Thom and Jinto enter the foyer, all smiles. She noted that Isu was with them too. Beth marched straight at Thom. "You have a grandson and bless me if he doesn't look just like you!" They both embraced, laughing. Isu embraced his sister. "Auntie Emery!"

"Uncle Isu!" It looked like they had been waiting a long time to do that.

While the men went to embrace and kiss the rest of the family, Jinto approached Lafiel. "Mission accomplished, I see."

"You are late," Lafiel said, irritated by his unfortunate choice of words. "If you wanted to see the newborn you will have to wait for Chisha and Geith to bring him from their room."

"That was by design. We couldn't come out of our cage until Mari pinged us the all-clear. Geith gets first look, that's the rule."

"That sounds right and proper."

"Jinto!" Shyori called. "Lafiel is the hero of the day! She took command of the delivery and it went without a hitch."

Jinto raised an eyebrow. "Really?" He gave Lafiel a knowing smile. "So, _Lafiel_, how about a mission report?"

Lafiel did not even get a chance to reply. By the time they heard three different versions of events Jinto could have been forgiven for thinking that Lafiel had delivered the baby all by herself. Before long, the women all went to wash off the seawater and change out of their swimwear. When Lafiel emerged from her bedroom, Jinto was sitting on the couch waiting for her. "We'll be reconvening in the living room in a little while," he explained. "This gives everyone a chance to call up friends and spread the news."

"I hope Chisha and Geith take all the time they want in privacy," Lafiel said. She sat down beside him. "She worked so hard today, he can be proud of her."

Jinto smiled fondly. "I'm proud of _you_, Lafiel."

Lafiel could feel herself blushing. "They exaggerated my role. I just encouraged her as I would any friend whose resolve was wavering."

"I should have figured you could never watch a mission without taking command."

"They gave me a position of honor by her side, Jinto. I could do no less."

"I'm happy to hear the change in how they talk to you."

Lafiel smiled. She knew what he was referring to. "It was at my request. I thought it was the right time."

"I'm happy for you," Jinto said, sounding like he really meant it. "But now you're letting everyone be on a first name basis with you. I'm insanely jealous."

"Idiot."

They made their way to the living room. The family was there, still awaiting the new parents. Somehow Beth had found time to put out hot food for those who wanted it, which was pretty much everybody. Before long, Geith wheeled Chisha and his son into the room, and focus shifted on them. Their unabashed pride was a pleasure to watch. Everyone was now speaking in hushed tones as they came to see the sleeping newborn. Lafiel got her turn as well. She could not help but ask, and was relieved to find out the midwife had fitted the newborn with a full array of micro-sensors which were now permanently attached to the local network, transmitting his vital signs. Lafiel got teased a little for trying to take control again. But she did not mind. For just a little while, she could pretend that she belonged here.

# # # #

In contrast with the sprawling complex of the main house, the beach house was simplicity itself. The first floor was just a long glass rectangle encompassing a single room. An open spiral staircase led to a second floor that was divided into three equal sections: a climate-controlled sun room on the staircase side, a glass-covered patio in the middle and an open patio on the other side. The wind was getting stronger already, so they had retreated to the covered patio which offered some shelter behind glass railings. Jinto and Thom were availing themselves of a chilled keg of beer as the watched over the new parents giving their son his first taste of the outdoor air. To Jinto's surprise, both Chisha and Geith also availed themselves. "Half a year on the wagon," Chisha had said with passion. After a couple of days in his crib, Lee seemed rather unimpressed with the change of venue.

Geith looked so immensely pleased with himself that Jinto really wanted to hit him.

They were having an extended discussion of relative opportunities and risks in the newly occupied territories. With their new baby right before their eyes instead of just a bulge in Chisha's belly, it appeared to have kindled in both parents a renewed concern for their future. They were both involved in work that could for the most part be done right here. But if they won subcontracts in the designing of new space habitats, it would at some point entail on-site work.

Jinto did not want to sugar-coat it for them. There were still a lot of uncertainties in how the war might progress. He had already had a private talk with Thom, the only member of the Kamrau family who had the sort of clearance for some of the information Jinto had at his disposal. They had agreed just what Jinto could pass along without being in violation of secrets acts. The main point was that many felt the Triple Alliance had still not deployed the bulk of their combined strength. The Empire's virtually uninterrupted advances since the start of Operation Phantom Flame five years ago could be rudely interrupted and reversed by a counter-offensive at any time. The newly occupied territories were the most probable targets of any such attack. Many incentives for working there were being offered by the Empire, but that just underscored the point that the risk was real. Of course, even Delktou had come under enemy occupation so the fact was no place could be called safe.

Jinto had been reluctant to involve Lafiel in any such discussion. She hid it well, but she had been on edge much of the time they were in the Village. It had even been apparent when she was excitedly trying to lead them to every place she thought would be interesting for them. Thankfully he had been able to convince her that the strip clubs she wanted to go to were not her cup of tea, as she no doubt would have discovered for herself. These past couple of days, just like everybody else Lafiel had been on a bit of a high, buoyed up by Lee's arrival. But Jinto knew she was still wrestling with some personal demons that she was not yet ready to talk with him about. He did not want to take away the comfort she had obviously derived from being part of this joyous event.

Something out at sea caught Thom's attention and turned his head. He pointed. "Whoa, would you just look at them go!"

Lafiel and Emery were wind-surfing using gear that Emery had customized for use in high winds. The sails had vents that were controlled by sensors which monitored the wind conditions. Similarly the boards had control surfaces that responded to motion and worked as active stabilizers. It still looked insane to Jinto. They seemed to spent more time floating over the white-capped waves than on them.

"I hope they'll be coming in soon," Geith said. "The wind's really picked up."

Geith got his wish. The two women angled in towards the shore, dropped the sails and dragged their boards up onto the beach. They exchanged waves with the spectators then disappeared into the first floor. After enough time passed for them to shower and change, they came up the stairway and emerged onto the patio. Naturally they both wanted to check up on Lee first, who deigned to grace them with a smile that they happily ate up.

"Good move coming in when you did," Geith said. "There was a gust at forty knots just now."

Part of the window to the adjacent sun room was set opaque and was showing the progress of the oncoming hurricane. "Category five now," Emery observed. "And the leading edge is coming straight up the bay at high tide. The storm surge is going to be massive."

"Very clever of you to drop Lee a bit early," Thom said to his daughter-in-law. "Otherwise even a pool birth might have been problematic."

Rather than being concerned with the worst storm in years, Lafiel was frowning at Chisha. She sniffed at Chisha's drink. "That smells like beer. Will it affect your breast milk?"

"No Lafiel, not taken one at a time it won't. And yes, that's my first and last for the day." She sounded rather amused at having her behavior scrutinized.

Jinto could not resist. "Lafiel, you can process alcohol much more quickly, maybe you should offer your services as Lee's wet-nurse."

"I could you know. Abh women can take a simple hormone to trigger lactation. It allows mothers to breast-feed even if they have elected to use a birthing chamber. I would have to check but I doubt there would be any incompatibility..." her voice trailed off when she saw the smiles she was getting. The look she gave Jinto promised swift justice.

On Chisha's request they moved into the sun room to escape the building winds. Taking advantage of the opportunity to change the subject back, Lafiel asked why weather control could not be used to dissipate the storm. The answer was that it could, but the bulk of the planet's weather-control resources were deployed to control storms around the mainland. One side-effect was that in this season the storms around Moruweka island were more frequent and more severe than they would be otherwise. It was yet another bone of contention between the island and the planetary authority.

"The territorial citizens on the mainland have given me another reason to dislike them," Lafiel said. Thankfully she had dialed down her Smile enough to make it clear she had no plans for terrible vengeance. "I see you have the boats behind a seawall now, are there any other preparations to make?"

"As soon as your boards are in the shed, that's it." They could see the maid robot already using the walker to do that. "We just go up to the house and wait it out."

"I've never seen a storm that strong. Would it be too dangerous to watch from here?" Lafiel asked.

"Not as long as you're inside the enclosed areas," Thom said. He smiled. "Dad was used to designing for space habitats, he really overbuilt the beach house to the max. Those are surplus windows certified for external use in habitats. That's why we don't need to board it up. He also dug piles into the rock three times the recommended specs. Probably nothing short of a direct missile strike would budge it."

"It would be safe, but it would be very _loud_," Emery said. "The waves are likely going to be up to the top of the first floor window at least."

"Lafiel, remember that drum concert we saw in the Village?" Geith asked. "Imagine being inside one of those drums when it gets hit."

"Interesting," Lafiel said. "Even through the rain, we could stand here and watch the waves hit."

"You make that sound like a good thing," Chisha chided her.

"It might be my only chance to see such a storm up close. Could I stay here?"

"Sure," Thom said. "There are facilities in the lower level, including a stocked kitchenette. It's a regular bomb shelter, so the noise _might _be a little less severe there if it starts giving you a headache."

"I don't get headaches. Would anyone else like to stay?"

"Sorry, I'm going to pass on this one," Emery said with an apologetic smile. "I stayed here once in a category four and that was plenty loud."

"I'll stay with you, Lafiel," Jinto said. "Somebody has to make sure you don't try and go out swimming. Don't lie to me, I know you were at least thinking about it."

"Don't be ridiculous, I just want to watch."

There were no more volunteers. Jinto was happy about that. His comment about swimming had been less of a joke than the others would think. The reveal had come when Lafiel declared her dislike of the mainland while looking at the satellite image of the storm. He had seen that look before. She had decided the storm was her enemy. Jinto was not sure what it meant, but he had an idea he was going to find out.

# # # #

Geith and Chisha took their baby up to the house first. Thom and Emery stayed a little longer. Shortly after they left, the rain started. It was mid-afternoon, but the sky just kept getting darker. The waves were now coming all the way up the beach, and lapping at the bottom of the window. Lafiel had Jinto help her move two lounge chairs up close to the window facing the sea. The intensity of the wind was now everything they said it would be. Even through the driving rain, Lafiel could see the trees to either side being whipped about as if they were possessed by some divine madness. The wind was blowing the sea into a frenzy of movement, the tops of waves being sheared off into spray by air whose speed had given it the force of a solid mass. It was like the explosive decompression of a hull breach with an infinite supply of air. Lafiel could imagine a field of stars behind her, sucking the air into space and freezing it into megatons of ice crystals.

An incongruous thought came into her head. "I wonder what the hybrids think of this storm?"

"I guess Blue Sky never got around to asking you where the wind came from?" Jinto asked.

"Only the rain. That was difficult, trying to tell her that the air can hold invisible water."

"I'll bet. They don't have religion so they won't blame it on an angry god."

"It is difficult not to think of it as being angry. I can see why our ancestors on Old Earth might have believed that the sky was angry with them." As Lafiel said it, she could not help but think there was something more, as if the sky were trying to tell her something.

"When any kind of storm hits, even if we know exactly where it came from, it can still feel like we're getting a punishment we don't deserve," Jinto said.

She could see Jinto had figured it out, that this storm had some sort of meaning for her. But it was still something she could not articulate. If it was a metaphor, it was one still hidden to her. "I suppose our arrival at your home planet was your storm."

"It looked very beautiful at the time. The fleet looked like a meteor shower that filled the sky."

Lafiel had heard Jinto describe it that way, the Abh fleet that had arrived to turn his world upside-down. "Storms can look beautiful from a distance, even this one looks beautiful from space."

"Do you want to bring up the satellite feed?"

"I would rather just watch through the window."

A while later, Jinto surprised her by producing from his backpack a little box of chocolates he said was from their trip to the Village. Somehow it was a perfect fit for him to be eating sweets while watching sea and sky vent their awful fury upon him. Waves were now thrumming against the bottom of the window, a harbinger of what was to come.

Lafiel picked up her own pack and pulled out the surprise she had prepared. She laughed at the look Jinto gave her when he saw the water-pipe. "Don't worry, this is pure Moruweka Gold with no additives. Just half a bowlful. Emery and I had the other half last night. I did not reveal state secrets or try to kiss her."

"That's encouraging," Jinto said. "Are you sure I can handle it, though?"

"Don't tell me you've never had this in all the time you were here, I wouldn't believe you."

"You would be right not to."

Lafiel lit up, blew thin smoke barely visible in the gloom, and passed the pipe to Jinto. When they were all finished with it, Lafiel smiled at him. "I have a sudden urge to go swimming, Jinto."

"That's not funny. Clearly you can't handle mixing your drugs, so no more chocolates for you."

That did make Lafiel laugh just a little, which made Jinto look more relaxed. They resumed watching the storm. Lafiel had heard people describe the effect of hash as a "buzz" but to her it seemed to be just the opposite. It brought clarity to the world and sharpness to her thoughts. Maybe it was related to her own engineered immune system, overcompensating for the presence of an unknown complex molecule.

They both nearly jumped when a massive wave slammed into the window, shaking the house to its foundations. It was something she felt right down to her bones. "Looks like we've made it mad now," Jinto said.

"No, _I_ have made it angry."

Jinto turned to look at her. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't know," Lafiel said truthfully. Why would anybody be angry with her? She could certainly draw up a list, but that would be pointless. There was something fundamental at stake, something basic that she needed to confront before she could free herself from her state of paralysis.

The next wave hit with even greater force, climbing nearly up to the top of the window. Geith's comment about a drum was more correct than Lafiel had imagined. The impact made the glass walls of the house resonate with their own unique set of notes, most of which were felt rather than heard. But it was the storm that was beating the drum, the storm that was speaking to her.

Lafiel got up and stood in front of the window, her hand to the glass. She sensed as much as saw Jinto walk up next to her. He held a vaguely protective stance. He said nothing, but she could tell that he was worried.

The next wave spoke to her in a voice that could not have been more clear. GET OUT!

Lafiel focused her gaze upon the driving rain that pelted the window mercilessly. Her inner voice responded with just one word. _Why?_ She stood there, awaiting the reply.

The house shook again. YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!

Lafiel already knew that. _I have no delusion of belonging here. I have been welcomed as a guest for a time, nothing more._

Another wall of water charged out and broke against the barrier. DON'T LIE! YOU REALLY EXPECTED TO FIND LOVE HERE!

Lafiel was unimpressed. Was that all? _The one I love has been in front of me all along. __This is the best time and place to tell him._

The sea lashed out at her in utter contempt. YOU KNOW HE WILL BELIEVE THE LIE INSTEAD OF THE TRUTH! THAT IS WHY YOU LET HIM BRING YOU HERE!

Lafiel had already made her decision. _I will tell him the whole truth. I will hold nothing back._

The next wave was full of harsh laughter. YOU WILL TELL HIM, AND ALL THE WHILE YOU WILL DISGUISE YOURSELF AS A MEMBER OF HIS SURROGATE FAMILY!

Lafiel stared down the enemy. _My love is real, it is no disguise._

This time it felt like the whole planet was laughing at her. YOUR LOVE IS A PALTRY THING THAT WILL BE SNUFFED OUT IN AN INSTANT!

The storm disappeared. Lafiel saw before her two stars.

His star was yellow, much like the one that nurtured this world. When touched by the first flowering of love, it flared out into a vast red giant, many times brighter. As it always must, that passion faded and bled off into space. But what was left behind was a tiny white dwarf star. It was a small but brilliant thing. It too would fade one day, but it would shine on many, many times longer than that innocent yellow sun ever could have.

Her star was blue, already many times brighter than its companion. It also responded to the offer of love by growing into something yet more immense and brilliant, a red super-giant that would stand out as a beacon in the galaxy. But rather than fading away, it soon exploded in a blaze of glory. Its final death agony appeared to leave nothing behind, but in fact it was less than nothing. It was a black hole which sucked away anything and everything that dared come close. Anything falling into it would vanish, never to be seen again. It ate up everything and gave nothing in return.

Lafiel remembered where this image had come from, where she had read it. Her enemy laughed at her again, this time wordlessly. Lafiel snarled at it. _I know who you are now. You presume to know all, but you know nothing of me. How could you know that my love will die so quickly?_

Ranef Duben's smiling face appeared before her. He answered in a perfectly calm, reasonable fashion. "How do I know? Because, Abriel Lafiel, that is exactly what it was _designed_ to do."

Lafiel dashed across the room and took the stairs two at a time. She charged across the sun room to the door and palmed it open. When it flashed a warning light she slammed the override. It slid aside and Lafiel dashed out into the howling wind. She staggered across the covered patio and out onto the open deck. Exposed to the full force of the storm, only her death-grip on the railing kept her from being swept away. The driving rain hit hard enough to hurt. She faced the ocean and shrieked at the top of her lungs. "IS THIS ALL YOU'VE GOT? IS THIS REALLY WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO DRIVE ME AWAY? WHO IN HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DEALING WITH?"

The wave shot up over the roof and slammed into her. She lost her grip and was driven right across the deck. The surging water deposited her roughly against the opposite railing. She struggled to her feet and fought the driving wind and rain, staggering back to where she had stood. She leaned into the wind, her arms up high. "LOOK! I'M STILL HERE! I'M STILL STANDING!"

Something grabbed a hold of her and hauled her aside. They fell in a tangle behind the solid glass railing that lined the covered patio. When the next wave hit the water was not able to slam into her, it just surged around them. Still, only Jinto's grip on the railing and her waist kept her from being swept away. When the water receded, Jinto hauled her to her feet and dragged her back to the door. She did not resist. A moment after the door closed behind them Lafiel's legs gave out. Jinto put his back to the window and slid them gently down to the floor, holding her tightly. Lafiel was panting and shaking violently. With her head tucked under his chin she could hear Jinto's own labored breathing. But his grip on her was firm, it felt as if he would never let her go. The wild white noise of the wind surged around Lafiel, the same as before. But it was now an insensate thing with nothing to say. The slow drumbeat of the ocean's own assault was muted somewhat here on the upper level. It too was now a lifeless thing, mere water mindlessly following the laws of hydrodynamics.

When Lafiel's body stopped shaking, she pulled away from Jinto and looked into his eyes. "Jinto, I love you."

His happy but long-suffering smile said _Did I have to drag you out of a storm to hear this__? _"I love you too, Lafiel."

She lay a hand on his shoulder and kissed him. His lips were just as cold as hers. There was no urgency, just a sort of relief. It felt as if he were no less exhausted than she was right now, not just from hauling her out of a storm but from what she had been putting him through for days now. "Jinto, I want to tell you everything now."

"I want to hear everything you have to say, Lafiel."

Lafiel sighed. "I am resolved, but I hardly know where to begin."

"Maybe we should begin by getting cleaned up."

Lafiel became aware of what a sight she must be. She was soaked with seawater, and her drenched, tangled hair was plastered to her. "I think you are right." He led her down to the first level where they retrieved their backpacks. There was an open shower here, but they continued down to the basement level. Lafiel had not been here before, she had just been using the first level shower behind glass made opaque. As Thom had described, it was a minimal storm shelter. Jinto invited Lafiel to go use the shower first, which she did. The only dry things she had in her pack were spare underwear, which she put on. When she emerged to tell Jinto he could have his turn, he had a cup of hot tea and lemon waiting for her in the kitchenette. While Jinto was getting cleaned up, she moved to the next room, which had a modest bed. She raised it to a low reclining position, propped up the pillows and lay there, sipping her tea. She worked her wristband and found there was a holo projector she could slave to. When Jinto walked in, she was lying there silently contemplating her real enemy. It appeared he was in the same boat she was, all he had left to wear was undershorts. They exchanged a smile. Without a word, he lay down next to her and put an arm around her. She settled in next to him and lay her head on his shoulder.

"So what are we looking at?" Jinto asked, examining the image that floated above them. "It's been a while since I took organic chemistry but it looks like a protein."

"It is Oxytocin."

"The neurotransmitter? You've taken mind-expanding drugs and now you're contemplating a part of your neurochemistry? Have I interrupted some odd sort of introspection?"

"If only that were the case," Lafiel said sadly. Now that she had resolved herself, the words came easily. "Do you know the significance of this neurotransmitter?"

"No, I don't remember."

"It is involved in the forming of long-term bonds between mammals who mate for life, including humans. It is just as important in developing the bonds between parents and children. Much of its work comes during childbirth itself, but it continues to be important throughout life. It forms a sort of virtuous cycle, making those bonds stronger as families stay together and live together."

She took his hand. "Jinto, the Abh have no receptors for Oxytocin. It is not a defect, it was a very deliberate choice. We are designed not to form the sort of lifelong bonds that you can."

Jinto absorbed that in silence for a moment before replying. "Lafiel, aren't you just afraid that you can't love?"

_I could devour you with my love, _Lafiel thought. But there was a reason she had no right to say that, and she had to tell him the reason. "Until I came here I never really understood what it is we stole from you when we took you from your family on Martine. It's so obvious to me now. Teal and Linna were more than your foster parents. They were like the air you breathed. What you had with them was so natural and given that you did not even need a name for it. I also understand now what you found here. You found a surrogate family."

"All of my families have been surrogate families, Lafiel," Jinto said gently. He kissed the side of her head. "Even you."

"But I cannot be a family to you the way that they can. It wouldn't be the same."

"Of course it wouldn't be the same," Jinto said patiently. "You're just telling me it would be harder for you and me to stay together. I've never expected being with you to be easy, Lafiel. You should know that by now."

Lafiel turned her hand in his, pressed her palm against his, their fingers interlocking. "I'm just so..." _You have to say it. _"I'm so afraid that what we have now would not survive if I took you for my man. If I give in and accept this one thing that I want _so much_, I can't help feeling there would be nothing left at the end. What if my unfulfilled desire is the only thing that can keep us together?"

"It's hard for me to imagine that."

"It's hard for me too, Jinto. But it's still what I fear."

"No, I was thinking it's hard for me to imagine your having an unfulfilled desire."

Lafiel sat up straight and stared at him. "What?" She straddled his hips and grabbed his shoulders. "That's hard for you to imagine?" she asked incredulously. "Jinto, I think you're _beautiful_! Didn't you know that?"

Jinto regarded her in wide-eyed surprise. He slowly shook his head. "No, I didn't," he said softly.

Lafiel's lip quivered. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She gave him one good shake then just looked down at him in disbelief. She could barely speak. "Idiot..."

He gathered her gently in his arms and let her lie on top of him. He must have understood that she did not want him to see her cry. In fact she did not, at least not much. Her frustration was directed mostly at herself. How is it that she had never told him? Was she really so craven? In a surprisingly short time, she found her voice again. "I have noticed how you regard me while we were here, dressed for the island and its waters. I thought you would have noticed that I regard you the same way."

"I suppose I did notice."

She propped herself on her arms and looked down at him. It was now obvious to her how he could not have known. "You thought I was teasing you. I never gave you any reason to believe otherwise."

He reached up to caress her face. "Lafiel, I know _now_. That's what matters."

Lafiel nodded. She bent down to kiss him. He held her back gently with hands on her shoulders. She nodded in understanding. He wanted to kiss her back this time. She closed her eyes and let him draw her closer. His lips met her forehead for just a moment, then he pushed her back slowly.

Lafiel opened her eyes and looked down at him in confusion. "Jinto...?"

He gave her that smile which always put her at ease. "Lafiel, I think you need to sleep on this."

"But why?"

He released his hold on her. "Because I've seen that look before. Right now you're still treating this as a mission."

Lafiel's lips pursed in anger. She clenched her eyes shut tight and her lips spread in a snarl. As she let out a growl of frustration she balled up her trembling hand into a fist and raised it high in the air. She held it hovering there for just a moment.

She had promised herself that she would not shrink back from the truth.

With a heavy sigh she brought her fist down and thumped it lightly on his chest, letting her forearm rest there. "Jinto, it annoys me to no end when you're right," she said evenly.

"Being right isn't always everything it's cracked up to be." There was both humor and regret in his voice.

Lafiel straightened up her back again and look down at Jinto. She did nothing to hide her irritation. "I am astonished at how you can take the wind out of my sails so quickly."

"'Wind out of your sails?' You really have gone native, and not just on the outside."

Lafiel regarded her dark skin, the looked suspiciously at him. "Jinto, it's not... _this_, is it?"

He sighed heavily, shaking his head. "Lafiel, you have got to be joking. You would be drop-dead gorgeous in any color. Get me some body paint and I'll prove it to you."

"Is there any here? Ouch! That hurt!"

"That's because I pinched you. And no, there's not any body paint here."

Lafiel rubbed the spot he had pinched. "That's too bad. I wanted it for you, I still owe you back for dyeing my hair."

"Are you sure you're still not upset over this?" Jinto asked, running a hand across her brown arm.

"I am, but this was my fault. I am not so petty as to punish others for my mistakes."

The humor left Jinto's face. "Whatever it is that's upsetting you, remember that I always want to know, I always want to help."

Lafiel smiled and nodded. "I know that now."

Jinto took her hands in his. "Lafiel, thank you for what you told me today. I know how hard it was and I'm proud of you. I'm really happy that I know everything now. After all you've done for me, I feel like it's something I can help you with."

She squeezed his hands. He did not know everything yet, but she had told him what was most important. "I may need a lot of help, Jinto. For a very long time."

"And you'll get it. But for right now, could I ask a small favor?"

"Of course, anything."

He released her hand and pointed over her head. "Could you kill that hologram? It looks sort of creepy hanging over you like that."

Lafiel laughed and touched her wristband. Her enemy disappeared. She lay down beside Jinto and let him pull her close. She could still hear the wind and waves pummeling the house over their heads, the noise muffled by the heavy ceiling. "Now we shall have to wait out the storm," she observed.

"Did you want to go watch it some more?"

"No, the storm no longer has anything to say to me." There were many other things she wanted to talk about, but right now she felt that they could wait. "Let's just drown it out. Why don't we listen to some _good_ music this time? Really loud."

"I like that idea."

# # # #

Jinto woke before dawn and could not get back to sleep. He had not been having any trouble with the longer days for quite a while now, but their return from the beach house at odd hours of the night had thrown him off again. He got up, walked over to the window and turned his patio light on. The wind was still fresh and there was some rain, but the storm was now all but spent. He and Lafiel had insisted on getting up early with the family and helping with today's cleanup operations, so it was actually not a lot of time until he was expected in the kitchen's attached dining area, the designated assembly spot. He got dressed in his jungle gear and walked over to see if there were any other early risers.

He smiled fondly as he walked past Lafiel's bedroom door. He had told her that she needed to sleep on this, and that may very well have been good advice. But his reasons had been far more selfish. If she had kissed him even once more, he knew that he would have started crying like a baby and could not stop until he was a horrid mess. Being more reluctant to cry than an Abriel, now there was a whole new definition of vanity. He was the one who had really needed to sleep on it.

Jinto made his way down the dimly lit curving corridor to the kitchen. The lights were on inside, and he heard low voices within. Isu and Sybila were seated at the table, drinking coffee. They exchanged a morning greeting with Jinto. "You are just a glutton for punishment," Isu said. "You spend all day yesterday getting hammered by the storm and now you can't wait to get started on the cleanup."

"So what's your excuse for being up at this hour?" Jinto asked.

"Both of us got time off to come see Lee, but with the storm we're on standby," Isu said. "We both got calls overnight. Nothing we had to go back out in the field for, but they did keep us up."

"Don't worry, we'll be staying here all day to work you hard," Sybila said. Jinto returned her grin. She and Isu made a very odd looking couple. She barely came up to his chest, was at least a few years his senior, and the contrast between their skin colors was almost as dramatic as between Thom and Beth. Yet when he saw them together for any length of time, somehow it was hard to imagine either of them being with anybody else.

Sybila's presence here reminded Jinto of how Lafiel had met her. "Lafiel had been wondering what the hybrids think of these storms."

Sybila laughed happily. Her eyes practically shone at mention of the one the hybrids had come to know as Child of Love. "Lafiel has really inspired Blue Sky to start asking questions. Yesterday instead of just hiding in the rocks with the rest she came to see my colleague and asked him where storms come from. That's one of the things he called me about. I suggested creating a whirlpool in the water and saying it's like that. Who knows where that will lead? I'll probably be getting more calls today."

"Is that causing any problems for you?" Jinto asked. Nobody had said it in so many words but he was pretty sure Lafiel had stepped outside the bounds of what she was supposed to be doing when she was with the hybrids.

"There's grumbling among the directors, but as long as they're not asking about our technology we can answer any question they ask. And more of them are asking a lot."

"So the next time I come here will this really be the planet of the apes?"

"No, but maybe they'll break out of the malaise that had them down for so long. Maybe they'll start living instead of just waiting to die."

"Dad says one thing right, Jinto," Isu said, looking fondly at him. "You really picked yourself up a live one."

"I keep telling you, she's the one who picked _me_ up."

"So was the storm everything she expected?" Sybila asked.

The subtext of the question was not lost on Jinto. It looked like others had picked up on Lafiel's mood before the storm, and the change it had wrought in her. Jinto gave as much of an answer as he was comfortable giving. "She managed to work out a lot of frustrations against that storm. It was very cathartic."

"That's good to hear. Hey, Isu!" She gave her boyfriend a love-tap. "Tell Jinto about the weather report."

Jinto frowned. "Weather report? What, is there another storm coming?"

"No," Isu said. "Just an interesting aftermath when one of these storms passes through. It's something grandma asked me to look out for, she seemed to think you and Lafiel might be interested."

Isu explained. When he was done, both he and Sybila regarded Jinto curiously. They must have been wondering why he was so lost in thought. After a while, he looked eagerly back at Isu. "Isu, you're sure it's okay if we borrow the walker tomorrow?"

"Absolutely. Have fun!"

# # # #

As the walker made its noisy way up the rough pathway, Lafiel watched the image of passing trees that was being presented by the ultrasound visors she wore. The binocular sensors gave everything a remarkably deep presence, but she was still getting used to integrating the odd monochrome images with her froth sense. Jinto had already said he could see fine with his visors, but without the froth sense she had to imagine it was more difficult. At the moment it did not really matter, the walker was on autopilot.

As to where it was taking them, Jinto was being very mysterious. He said it was a surprise, and she was happy to accept that. With the gear they had brought, she had to assume it was some sort of climbing excursion. She still did not understand why they needed to get up in the middle of the night, though. There was a heavy mist right across the island that made everything pitch black and rendered any other sort of night vision equipment all but useless. Perhaps it was some sort of exercise derived from the training Thom received in the Marines. Whatever it was, Jinto looked more eager than she had seen him in a while.

Of course, it occurred to her that he might want to take her someplace special to consummate their love. That would certainly be welcome, but that was not the sort of signal she had been getting from him yesterday or today. His eagerness had a different source.

The walker emerged from the jungle and climbed up bare rock that was even steeper. When it had reached its limit, they gathered their gear, debarked, and climbed further up the rock. The visors had a very limited range, so everything outside the immediate vicinity was black. Her froth gave her a little more range, but it still felt like they were climbing up a rock face suspended in space. It was still a challenge to judge her footing on the rock, but she could see that a clear path had been marked. Jinto led and kept a modest pace. Lafiel was laboring under the steep climb, but it was well within her limits.

At length they came to a sheer vertical rock wall. Lafiel had been expecting this, the GPS showed that they were approaching the volcanic plug nearest to the Kamrau house. As they approached closer, Lafiel could see that a cable had been driven into the rock and pulled tight. It led straight up and out of sight, held taut just over the rock face.

"This is a carbon whisker cable," Jinto explained. "I'll show you how to attach your harness to it."

When they were done, Lafiel's harness was attached to a roller that slid along the cable, and Jinto's was attached above hers. He explained that the roller would slide freely along the cable as long as they went slowly, but if they slipped it would act as a brake. This way they could climb any part of the rock face within a couple of feet of the cable, but they were protected from falling.

"This is a beginner's level climb, so don't worry," he said. "There are plenty of easy footholds and handholds, some of them natural, some of them put there. Are you ready to start?"

"Yes, after you."

"Not much choice in that," Jinto said, showing his roller above hers. "Stay at least three meters below me. I haven't fallen on anyone yet but I don't want to start now." She could not see his face well using the visors, but his voice still held the same happy anticipation.

The climb up the vertical rock face went a lot slower than the first part of the climb had been. Jinto was right about there being plenty of handholds, and Lafiel was more used to the visors now. The cable was held away from the rock at regular intervals by pylons, but the rollers were designed to slide past them with just a little effort. The climb was tiring, but not overly difficult. Again, Jinto set a modest pace. At wider intervals there were places where they could plant both their feet firmly and rest.

They had been climbing for more than an hour when Jinto said "We've made it to the top."

"That can't be," Lafiel said. "I know we could not have climbed even a fraction of the way to the top."

"Not the top of the plug, the top of the climb." Lafiel looked up to see that Jinto was standing on a ledge. Just above him was the place where the top of the cable had been driven into the rock. She made her way up to join him, climbing onto the ledge on the opposite side of the cable from Jinto. It was much wider than any ledge they had rested on, but was still only a couple of feet wide. There could be no thought of them detaching their safety harnesses. She stood there with one hand on the cable, taking in great gulps of the remarkably cool air. Of course there was not much to see, her visors still showed her just the nearby rock. They seemed to be suspended over nothingness.

After they had rested in silence for a couple of minutes, Jinto spoke again. "We are above the mist now, Lafiel. You can remove your visors."

She did. It took just a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Her breath came in sharply. "Oh...!"

The cluster of volcanic plugs towered over her, lit only by starlight and the pre-dawn sky glow. They floated over a silvery carpet of mist. All was utter silence and stillness, there was barely even a breath of wind.

"It's... 'The Pride of the Abh'" she whispered.

"Yes," Jinto said softly. "I knew this was how it would look. This was what I wanted you to see."

'The Pride of the Abh' had been one of Lafiel's favorite digital images since she was little. It showed an array of impossibly tall, steep, sharp snow-clad mountain peaks towering over a sea of mist, under a field of stars. Few images so readily invoked the quiet dignity that the Abh strove for. And here it was, arrayed in front of her. Only it was _real_. Megatons of rock stood silently, as they had for millions of years, as they would for millions more, unimpressed by all the works of man. They were not the mountains she remembered, but they had a magnificence all their own.

Silently they watched as the sky became brighter and the stars began to disappear, one by one. At length, the sun showed itself to their left. Gradually, the rock towers were bathed in its ruddy glow. More and more detail showed. When the sun was above the horizon, it showed the volcanic plugs in all their rough but elegant glory. This was the part of them that had been hidden from view until now. Lafiel had seen but dark glimpses of them on that clear night sitting on the rocks with Blue Sky. Other than that, she had seen only the base of the volcanic plugs showing below the clouds. Now, it was the base that was hidden. It was like seeing the flip-side of the same world.

As the sun rose further, it began to burn off the mist. More and more of the island became visible. Familiar greenery began to show itself. She could even identify places she had been. Here was the sinkhole where she had taught Blue Sky about the stars, there was the bay where the Village had been built. Before her eyes, the Pride of the Abh had been transformed into the beautiful island that had welcomed her.

They were the same place.

When the tops of the rock towers began to coax wispy clouds from the gathering breeze, the transformation was complete. The breeze was now playing with her hair. Lafiel had set her helmet on her back to more fully enjoy the air. She turned to Jinto and smiled. In the midst of the greatest peace Lafiel had ever known she wanted to tell him exactly what he had done for her. "Jinto, thank you. Now that you have brought me here, I am no longer afraid."

His look was enigmatic. He did not smile. His helmet was also on his back, his brown hair was tickled by the breezes. He turned to her and took her by the shoulders. "Lafiel, there is something that I did not understand until we stood here and saw this. It is something that makes me ashamed to show my face in front of this magnificence."

"I don't understand," Lafiel said, utterly mystified. "What could you be ashamed of?"

"The truth is, until now I have never stopped being the little lost kitten you found wandering around that spaceport. Since that day I have always been content to follow you wherever you might lead. I thought you wanted to be in control, but that was just my cowardice speaking. I don't want to be that lost kitten any more. There are many things I want to tell you, but right now there is one thing I need you to hear. I don't know if this is the proper way to ask you, but I don't want to leave any doubt what I am asking. Lafiel, I want your genes."

Lafiel felt her mouth spread in a broad smile. She placed her hands lightly on his chest. "That sounds like the way my _father_ would have asked Plakia to be my gene donor."

Jinto smiled awkwardly. "I'm sorry, did that make it sound creepy?"

Lafiel shook her head. "You asked in exactly the way I would understand. Let me do the same in return for you. Jinto, I want for us to raise our children together."

His smile became infinitely peaceful. "I _knew_ that was how I should have asked."

"I have just one condition."

"Anything."

Lafiel stepped closer, placing her hands over his shoulders. "I want you to accept a promise from me. I promise that I will be in every way your wife, and I will accept you in every way as my husband, as long as we live. I told you I am not afraid and I meant it. No genetic disorder imposed upon us by masters long dead will defeat me. I _choose_ to be your woman of my own free will, and I defy anyone to say I have not earned the right. Let me show you the love of the Abriel is not some paltry thing to be-"

He shut her up with a kiss. Their first and second kiss had been stolen in quiet moments of heartbreaking tenderness. This was something altogether different. She wanted to devour him, and he responded in kind. Lafiel abandoned all thought and just let her body throw itself into the moment. When they finally broke free Lafiel was breathing in gasps. They stood there in each others' arms, shaking violently, their foreheads pressed together, their ragged breaths mingling. Lafiel was surprised to see that they were still standing on the ledge and not dangling from their harnesses. How had she managed to keep on her feet?

She met his eyes and spoke between great shuddering breaths. "This is unfair... kissing me like that.. when we are in this..." she glanced at their surroundings. "_Impossible_ position."

Jinto also spoke between shuddering gasps of air. "You're right... This location is... rather awkward."

Lafiel nodded in agreement. She looked down the way they had come. The bottom looked dauntingly far away. "Jinto, how quickly can this climb be done in the descent?"

"Very quickly."

"Good." She looked closely into his eyes again. "We lost much sleep from the storm, we both worked hard yesterday and we were up very early today. I believe we have more than enough reason for retiring to our rooms early today. Would that be agreeable, Jinto?"

He returned her smile. "Yes Lafiel, that would be most agreeable."

# # # #

Jinto's eyes fluttered open. He just saw the bedroom ceiling and Lafiel smiling down at him. "Sorry, did I doze off?" he asked.

"Only for a couple of minutes."

She was still sitting upright, straddling his hips. Jinto's head rested on a pillow. He could not help but grin. "Did you really sit there the whole time?"

"I told you it was not long. And I enjoy watching you sleep."

"I guess turnabout is fair play." He ran his hands along her bare legs. "That just doesn't look like a very comfortable position to be in for long."

"It is very comfortable. Less so for you I would think, in this gravity field I must be heavy."

"Not at all," Jinto assured her. "You're lighter than I am." He lost himself in admiring her again. Since the point where the last of their clothes had been tossed to the floor, this was just about the first time they had been still like this long enough for him to really drink in the sight of her. It was enough to make him want to cry.

He noticed Lafiel's body language change a bit. She averted her gaze, and twirled some of her hair around in her finger. "Don't you like being looked at this way?" Jinto asked.

"I do like it." She did not sound too convincing.

He grinned. "Lafiel," he chided her, "You couldn't possibly be embarrassed _now_, could you?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm just disappointed that the first time you see me properly I am looking like this."

"Well, I'm really going to enjoy seeing you go through every shade of brown in the coming weeks."

She looked earnestly at him. "Jinto, when we return to duty will you share my quarters on the Frikov?"

Jinto blinked. That had come out of nowhere. "Of course," he said happily. "But is that even allowed?"

"The ship commander is entitled to share her quarters with whomever she pleases."

"Won't that be awkward for you?"

"Why? Lovers sharing quarters on warships is not uncommon. When officers request being placed together we do not ask why."

"I usually end up spending most of my free time in your quarters anyway. I'd love to spend even more."

She smiled. "Then it's decided." Her look became wistful. While he lightly ran his hands across her bare skin she had been returning the favor. But now she stopped and looked intensely at him. "Jinto, losing myself in this day has been wonderful. But now that we are speaking of future plans, there is something we need to talk about."

"Okay. Why don't you lie down?"

Lafiel lay down beside him, resting her head on the same long pillow. They joined in a loose embrace. "Jinto, my service in the Space Force is likely going to go for several years. It will be a long time before I can think of raising children."

Jinto had been expecting this talk to come some time soon. "I know. We'll just have to wait, that's all."

"This has been one of my greatest anxieties, especially since I have been staying on the island. I see how eager the people here are to start their families."

"You've also seen how they can be patient, Lafiel. Islanders say marry late, marry well, marry once. There are lots of good reasons for that. One of them is, the longer we wait the better prepared we'll be for raising kids. Look at Thom and Beth, they were a lot older than us whey they started their family. I think it's better this way." He smiled sheepishly. "In fact that's why I was worried about us jumping the gun."

Lafiel looked mildly annoyed at the reminder. "It still astonishes me that you thought we could conceive."

"I didn't have the benefit of Abh sex education."

"It's just common sense. Why would we walk around being fertile when we all conceive in vitro? Abh women would need hormone treatments to conceive naturally."

"I guess that does make sense." At the time he broached the subject Lafiel had told him very emphatically that accidental conception was impossible and he should stop wasting time fretting about it right that instant. He had been happy to comply.

For a moment before she spoke, Lafiel averted her eyes, a sign she was raising a subject she would rather not. "Jinto, natural childbirth among the Abriel is almost unheard of. I've witnessed a birth now. It looked... very difficult."

Jinto smiled. "Lafiel, does the birthing chamber you came from still exist?"

She seemed surprised at the question. "Of course. The Abriel have a dedicated facility on Lakfakalle. The equipment is always being upgraded but the shell is the same."

"That is where I would like our children to be born, Lafiel."

She smiled and caressed his face. "That would make me very happy."

"You look relieved, too."

She nodded. "I can't deny it."

"Were you really thinking I might ask you to bear our children yourself?"

"I would have considered it, if you asked." It sounded like she had been thinking about this and she really meant it.

"I don't even want to think of how cross you would be with me for nine months. And I mean it, Lafiel. I really do want our children to come from the same place you did."

Her smile was warm. But Jinto was sure that he could still see signs that she now had one less thing to be anxious about. Her voice was lighter when she spoke again. "If I go into business after we've raised our children I think I will aggressively market birthing chambers on the lander worlds. I admire the women who are willing to endure pregnancy and childbirth, but it still looks to me like a crushing burden."

"Maybe you can market a portable aquatic version for the island."

"I hope that was a joke. It would be remarkably pointless."

Jinto suggested some more marketing ideas. Lafiel shot them down one by one. After his more or less serious ones ran out he went for the more outlandish. When he finally suggested a modified maid-robot she really did hit him. After she kissed it better, she snuggled closer. "Jinto, I'd like you to put your hand here."

"Okay." He cupped her breast and they lay quietly that way. It had taken getting used to, the way Lafiel unabashedly told him exactly what she would like him to do. That had thrown him for a loop at first, considering how prudish she could be otherwise. Now he just thought it was adorable. And she had shown no qualms when he made explicit requests of his own.

Jinto just wished that Baronh had a few more euphemisms for things. Being naughty in this language often felt a little bit clinical.

He decided to speak with action instead. He took her hand and guided it to where he wanted it. She looked at him and smiled in understanding. They both probed very slowly and gently for a while, now letting their mouths explore as well. After a while he moved on top of her and kissed her deeply for a good long time. She was doing that remarkable thing where she moved her hands just over his skin, touching little more than the tiny invisible hairs, something he had quickly found was a bit like turning on a switch. He reached down and caressed her more forcefully.

Their eyes met and they stopped moving. He felt a bit awkward. "It isn't working out this time is it?"

She gave a little smile and shake of her head. "Not for me either. It appears we are both spent for the day." She coaxed him down on top of her and he lay with his head between her breasts while she cradled him gently. After he was listening to her breathing and heartbeat for a little while, she spoke again. "Jinto, was there anything that surprised you about... today?"

Jinto thought about that. "I wasn't expecting you to be quite so aggressive."

"Is that okay?"

"It's much, much better than okay, Lafiel."

"I'm glad." She was silent for a moment. When she spoke again it was with a tone of contrition. "I am sorry about the scratches. I was distracted."

"It's okay, I hadn't really noticed at the time either. I had my clumsy moments too. Maybe I should be checking you for bruises."

"You would never find them under all this skin pigment. Any bruises I have are more likely to be from getting tossed across the roof by the waves."

Jinto felt it was finally time to ask. "Lafiel, you told me what had been tormenting you and I understand it now. But I'm not sure I understand what that storm represented for you."

To his surprise she answered quickly and easily. "It represented Ranef Duben and all the falsehoods he tried to fill my head with. He told me about the missing neurotransmitter receptors in the Abh brain, and how it makes us different. Then he twisted it around and made me think that I could never love you. I fell for it hook, line and sinker."

Jinto gave a little smile. She was sounding more like a native every day. "He's probably been messing with people's heads for a hundred years, Lafiel. He must be very good at it by now."

"I think he is better at it than either of us can imagine," Lafiel said with venom in her voice.

"What I can't understand is why. Does he hold some grudge against you?"

This time it was a moment before she replied. "He knows about Miriam."

Jinto got up and looked into Lafiel's eyes. He could see the pain there. His face screwed up, feeling it himself. He caressed her cheek. "Oh my precious one... what can I do?"

He was astonished at the slow transformation that came across her face. It was the look of unshakable resolve and absolute confidence he had seen many times when she gave the order that would bring down the killing blow upon the enemy. "Everything is clear to me now, Jinto. I know exactly what I need to do. I told you about this because I wanted you to know all the reasons why I put you through the things that I did. But now I need you to trust me once again. Ranef will never lay a hand on her and he will never lay a hand on us. You have my promise."

Jinto nodded. "I understand. I'll leave it in your hands." A small part of his mind was thinking _Oh_, _that poor, poor bastard._

Lafiel put a hand on his arm. "Something else has also become clear to me. For a long time now everything has been about my problems, my demons. It has never been about you. I want that to change. I'm certain there has been something weighing on you, something besides what I have put on your shoulders myself. Please, treat me as your wife and tell me what it is."

Jinto nodded. "Okay." They lay down together. He poured out all the thoughts he had been having about his father these past few days. Jinto had always thought of Rock Lin as little more than a distant figure who had given him a name, passed him to a surrogate family and then had cut a deal with the Empire that ended up turning Jinto into an exile. But after his talks with Thom, Jinto had begun to realize just how carefully his father had been watching out for him. Every move he made had put Jinto in the best possible place he could be. Even when the world turned upside-down, he had done the one thing that would ensure Jinto a place in his world's future. And then, without ever having heard a single word of gratitude, he had paid the ultimate price for his son.

After Jinto fell silent, it was a while before Lafiel spoke. "I think what Thom said makes sense. The Empress would have done everything to isolate your father from you. Most likely your father only sent you one short letter a year because they would allow nothing more."

It did make sense, and now Jinto had heard it from an insider, an expert on how the royal family operates. "He could have been writing me new letters every day and asking his keepers to send them to me, day after day, trying to wear them down. It's what he would have done."

Lafiel nodded. "They probably lied to him and told him that you had received the letters and had sent no reply. If I wanted to isolate him from you, that is what I would have told him."

Jinto looked at her in shock. It was something he had not even considered. A moment later Lafiel seemed to realize her error. She took his face in her hands. "Oh Jinto, that was... I'm so sorry, I should never have said that. Please forgive me."

He smiled sadly. "You're right, Lafiel. I'm sure you're right. But you know, my dad was the smartest politician our planet has ever seen. He would know that they were lying. I'm sure he would-" His voice broke.

Lafiel gathered him in her arms and rocked him while he wept softly. She kissed the top of his head. "This is something I can always do for you," she murmured gently. "Even I can do this much."

A while later she took another cloth and water from the headboard cabinet and had Jinto hold still while she washed his face. It felt like being anointed. But when she reached for him again he gently took her hand and shook his head with a lopsided smile. "Lafiel, I have my pride. You are _not_ blowing my nose for me, that's final." She accepted that. But now Jinto hated how miserable she looked. He took her hands. "Lafiel, I don't want you to regret what you said. It hurt, but it was the truth. You've given me something nobody ever has. You've made me realize just how much I loved my father. After all that bitterness and resentment, I still love him. And I'm not ashamed any more. Thank you for that."

Lafiel's expression softened a little bit. "It's not the sort of thing I wanted you to hear, not on this day."

"Maybe it was something I needed to hear."

That seemed to go over a little better. "I suppose that I can accept that."

Jinto had an inspiration. "Lafiel, I think there's something you need to hear too. I know there's one thing in particular you've always resented your father for. But I want to tell you there's no reason for you to feel that way."

She cocked her head. "What thing are you talking about?"

He smiled. "I've always thought that the Abriel ears are overkill, the points are way too long and narrow. Yours are smaller because your father decided to introduce some random elements into your genome. I know you're sensitive about that. I just wanted to tell you that I like your ears much, much better."

That got the smile he had been looking for. She turned her head slightly to the side, as if putting them on display. "Do you really mean it?"

"Yes, I do," he said emphatically, reaching out to gently stroke an ear that had today become just as familiar to his hand as it had long been to his eye. Then he stopped and looked more closely. "Hey, I didn't know you could do that."

She frowned in puzzlement. "Do what?"

"Wiggle your ears."

Her frown deepened. "I cannot do any such thing."

"But you did, just now."

"Don't be ridiculous, you're imagining things."

He stroked her ear again. She pulled away. "Stop that!"

"I just wanted to see you do that again. Maybe it's an autonomous reaction. We should do some experiments."

As quick as a cat she had both his ears in her hands. "Well if you like them so much then maybe I'll just pull on yours until they're even longer! What's that? What's that you said? You want me to pull harder, is that what you said?"

"Hurts...!" he squeaked. She let him go and he fell down on the bed, cradling his ears. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow..." When it did not hurt quite so much he smiled up at her. "Sorry."

She continued to glare at him. "That was your fault. You knew I'm sensitive about my ears."

"Is there any other sensitive part I should know about? Even though it's temporary I already know about the skin color."

"You forgot the hair color."

"But it's hardly changed at all."

"Yes it has. You can see for yourself." She shifted her legs and pointed to hair on top then hair on bottom. "Exposed hair, unexposed hair. They used to be the same color, now the difference is clear."

Jinto looked up and down. The term 'unexposed' was rather ironic. He sighed. "Seen in that light, I guess I have to concede the point."

After a while she asked him "What are you staring at?"

"What do you think?"

That prompted her to shift position and lie down beside him. She was still pouting a bit, but she did not look quite so annoyed. "Are you okay?" she asked, sounding worried that she had injured him.

"Yes, but it feels like my ears are a little longer now."

She reached out slowly, and very lightly ran a finger along his ear, as if in apology to it. "They are not."

"You had asked me about surprises."

Lafiel looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose there were some. I am surprised at how good it is _not_ to always be in control. I did not think I would want so much to be both the subject _and_ object of desire." She did not seem satisfied by that answer. After a moment she looked more intensely in his eyes. The next words were emphatic, but appeared to come with difficulty. "I really do want to be ravaged by the man I love."

"I already know that," Jinto said softly. She had made that known in every possible way. "But I'm happy to hear you say it." He smiled. "I did note the plural. So?"

"Well..." She averted her eyes for just a moment. "More than I expected it's all just a bit... messy. I've been worried, has my desire for cleanliness bothered you?"

He laughed softly. "No, not a bit." She had been using damp cloths to clean off herself and also him. He had returned the favor and it became a gentle ritual. "I've known that about you for a long time, your living spaces are always so neat and tidy. I've always thought of myself the same way but I expect after rooming together for a while you'll disagree."

"As long as I'm not tripping over things I'll have no complaint. My living space has always been my personal retreat, the place I have complete control over. I've already told you, Jinto. I don't want to be in complete control any more."

He smiled. "I'll hold you to that."

"I expect you to. I want the world we inhabit to be made by the both of us."

That reminded Jinto of something he had wanted to tell her for a long time. "Lafiel, do you remember what you told Teal and Linna, that day you met them?"

She looked surprised by the question. "I thought I had told them that I would always watch out for you. That is what I asked you how to say in your own language. What you told me to say seemed to be rather too long."

"That's because what I told you to say was actually something different. What you said to them was, 'I will become his world, and I will make him my world'."

Lafiel's expression was very enigmatic as she absorbed that. She frowned just a little. "Was that not a little pretentious?"

"I prefer to think of it as prescient."

Her expression softened. "Perhaps it was."

"Lafiel, would it be okay for me to write them and tell them that you have kept that promise?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, please do that."

After a moment gazing happily into her eyes, Jinto observed "You look sleepy."

"I am. It's nearly dark." Lafiel had insisted on putting the window in frosted mode, which hid the view but let in light. More light was now coming from the room lamps than the window.

"We've been up for at least twenty hours straight. Maybe it's time to get some sleep."

"Yes, I think it is," Lafiel said. She sounded equally reluctant for this day to end.

"Is it really okay for me to sleep here?"

"Of course, it's what I want." Lafiel came closer. "I think I'd be more comfortable on the other side, though."

"That's fine, I have no preference." She scooted under him. As soon as he settled in facing her with his arm over her waist, she gave the voice command to dim the lights and make the window opaque. In the darkness, Jinto gave a little laugh. "Now I understand."

"Understand what?"

"Wet spot."

"Idiot! Do you want to sleep on the floor?"

"That would be troublesome." Nothing more was said. In very short order, Jinto drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

# # # #

For a while now Emery had just lost herself in the simple, repetitive task of brushing varnish onto the side of the new sailboat Shyori had built for her. This hands-on approach was old school even by Shyori's standard, but Emery was happy. The two of them were making good progress working on opposite sides of the boat they had pulled out of the boathouse onto the launch. Today was mostly sunny, pleasantly warm with light winds. It was a perfect day for doing something mindless and peaceful.

Emery was vaguely aware of the sound of an approaching jet-ski. She did not think of it until she heard Shyori speak from behind the boat. "Looks like our newlyweds are here."

Emery put her brush down, stood straight and looked out into the bay. Sure enough, Jinto was piloting the jet-ski with Lafiel behind him hanging on tightly. Lafiel waved and Emery waved back. A smile came to her lips. _What a difference a day makes._

The family had only seen their house guests sporadically in the past couple of days. For the most part they would head out someplace by themselves when they came out at all, and then retire early to their rooms. Today they had said was their day to come out here to the property Shyori shared with her parents and brother, which offered easy access to the pool where the girls had been diving a few days ago. It was good to see them out and about again. Lafiel was a handful, but she was also a delight. Emery had missed seeing her.

Jinto brought the jet-ski up onto the beach just fast enough for it to slide up above the tide mark. When they disembarked, Emery could see that Lafiel had traded her old swimsuit for a bikini. As the two of them walked over with a bounce in their steps, it became more obvious just how nicely Lafiel filled it. Emery caught herself licking her lips. _Whoa, down girl._

"Lafiel!" Shyori called. "Come see how the boat's looking now!" Lafiel had seen the incomplete boat when she was here before.

"It's looking beautiful!" Lafiel enthused. She admired the wood that had been varnished. "Abh peers who have a liking for wood trim would pay a fortune for this, and you have made an entire boat out of it." She gave Shyori a dazzling smile. "You have given Emery a gift beyond measure."

"It's a labor of love," Shyori assured her.

"I can see that. The way you are doing everything by hand, it is like you are raising a child together." That was not the sort of metaphor Emery would have expected to hear from Lafiel until very recently.

"I saved the best wood for the trimming that I haven't installed yet," Shyori explained. "Would you like to come to the boathouse and see it?"

"You go ahead," Jinto encouraged Lafiel. "I need to ask Emery about where we're going." After Shyori had taken Lafiel up to the boathouse, Jinto smiled and said "I'm sorry we've been kind of strangers lately."

"We all understand," Emery said. "Lafiel had some issues to deal with and you're making up for lost time. We're very happy for you." She took a more serious tone now. "I know it's probably something you can't talk about, but I really hope you're both going to be fine."

"We are. Some old ghosts came to haunt us, but it's all sorted out now."

Emery had known for a while that something had happened on Lafiel's trip to the House on the Hill. She was certain it must be an immensely complicated matter of Imperial politics, some high-stakes game played among people who traded planets the way islanders traded beach houses. Whatever it was, it appeared Lafiel had come out on top. Emery also got signals suggesting that whatever had been vexing her, somebody somewhere was going to pay dearly for it.

The other change was not at all mysterious and perfectly plain to see. Lafiel was showing off the fact that she and Jinto now belonged to each other. "I'm just glad to see you both having fun again."

"We've been having fun from the start, Emery. We just got a little side-tracked."

"I hope she understands the attention she's going to draw, putting herself on display like that."

"I advised her similarly."

Emery got the impression his advice had fallen on deaf ears. "So what did you need to ask me?"

Jinto smiled. "Nothing about today, we know how to get where we're going. I just felt that I can finally ask for your assessment."

It had been a running joke since the day Jinto had revealed his identity to the family. Being a precocious twelve year old, Emery had taken it upon herself to save Jinto from the people who would take advantage of him. She had extracted a promise from him to bring before her any Abh woman whom the future Duke was intending to make his consort. Being wise in the ways of love, Emery could tell him right away whether that woman's love was true or whether she was just a gold-digger.

Emery smiled. "My assessment? Are you kidding me, Jinto? I would do her in a heartbeat!"

He smirked. "That's not quite what I meant, Emery."

Emery laughed. "I know. It's obvious, she's your soul-mate. My sea eyes tell me that is one ultra high-maintenance ship you are sailing. Fast, long range and very seaworthy. Fully loaded, lots of work to keep her afloat, lots of things that can go wrong. She is not going to change direction in a hurry or without a lot of coaxing. But she'll get you through any storm you can take her into and come out the other side looking for more. Don't skimp on the maintenance and she'll take you wherever you want to go, for as long as you can hang onto her."

Jinto's smile became awkward, his eyes misty. He shifted his gaze, contemplating the water of the bay. "Emery, you're going to make me cry all over again," he said in a thick voice.

She took his shoulder. "Jinto, you've hooked this one. Just keep doing what you're doing."

He nodded, looking out at the bay as if wondering how to give thanks to this place. Emery just stood there being with him.

Just as Emery was starting to throw worried looks over to where her girlfriend was entertaining the hottest item on the island, the two of them emerged and came back all smiles. "Emery, you are going to have such a beautiful boat," Lafiel said. "You must send me a picture when it is finished."

"Hey, look what we picked out for Lafiel's ship," Shyori said. She had two long, exquisite pieces of kauri wood. It was unfinished, but even so it was obvious the grain would be gorgeous when it was polished.

"They're for the armrests on my command chair," Lafiel said, positively beaming.

"So that's what you were taking your time with," Emery said, with some relief.

"Will that be within regulations?" Jinto asked.

"Of course it is," Lafiel insisted. "Admiral Spoor has curtains over her command chair, I can have wood armrests. Shyori has the specs, it's all set."

The two of them stuck around to chat for a few minutes. Soon it became apparent they were anxious to leave. Before long they disappeared down the path leading to the swimming hole. "Back to work for us?" Shyori asked.

"You know it. No rest for the wicked."

Emery was just getting back into the rhythm of painting when she heard it again. "Okay, what's so funny?"

Shyori giggled more loudly. "From the track marks across that boy's back, I can see he's had his fun."

"He's limping a bit, too."

"I noticed. That girl must be something like a rabid baboon."

Emery was thinking much the same thing. "That would put her in good company, dear."

"I don't scratch you."

"Only because you trim your nails close for doing carpentry."

"Oh, I'm getting goose-bumps. When she's caressing those armrests it will be like she's caressing me. I'm going to be her good-luck charm."

"I have to say, I'm giving you points for keeping your hands off her."

"I'm not crazy, Emery. Nothing on the gaydar, she's clearly a one-man woman and he's got her hooked. That's three strikes right there."

"Yes, I'd say she's spoken for now." And it was bloody well about time, too.

End Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

**Furlough**

**A Banner of the Stars Story**

Chapter 7 – Parting Shots

Lafiel usually removed her wristband when they used the whirlpool out on the deck outside their living room. Jinto noticed that she still was wearing it on the arm she had resting against his chest. He thought maybe she had just forgotten about it, but now this was the third time he had seen her check it since they fixed breakfast and came out here to soak. Far from being worried about anything, she gave an air of eager anticipation. "I thought maybe you were checking the weather reports," he said. "They usually don't change that often, you know."

She just smiled and snuggled closer. "I'm not checking the weather."

Jinto got the feeling he was not going to be getting any more answer for the moment. Last night she had made vague statements that she would like to stay around the house this morning. Maybe she was expecting somebody. They had been getting out and about meeting more people in the past few days, but Jinto had to wonder whose arrival she would be anticipating this eagerly.

A little while later she stood up from where she had been lying next to him in the whirlpool and looked out onto the bay. Jinto admired the view. _I sure hope nobody across the bay has a telescope._

She smiled and turned to face him. "Jinto, let's go out to the pool deck."

"Okay." Before he followed her into the lounge, Jinto glanced out at the bay. The only thing he saw that might have caught her attention was the daily delivery boat run turning in toward the house. Usually that was just a routine delivery of supplies handled by the maid-robot and the walker.

Jinto walked into Lafiel's bedroom, which was now _the_ bedroom. They toweled each other dry and got dressed. Once again she was putting on a new swimsuit that he had not seen before. He had stopped commenting on that a while ago. Jinto put on his old swimming trunks. Lafiel had got him a pair something like what Brint liked to wear, but Jinto would not step out of here with those on even at gunpoint.

They walked down the corridor and emerged onto the pool deck. Geith and Chisha were over on the covered section with the baby, so of course they had to go play with Lee for a while. When Lee started to look unimpressed they made their way onto the sun deck where Emery and Shyori were lounging.

Shyori sighed. "Lafiel, your new swimsuits keep getting smaller. You are driving us crazy!" She turned to face her girlfriend. "Emery, if we do her together there would be no hard feelings, right?"

Emery shrugged. "I'm game, but you'd better ask Lafiel."

"Okay. Lafiel, I am declaring my lust."

Lafiel smiled down at Shyori. "Sadly I must decline," she deadpanned. "I am very fond of you and your form is most pleasing to my eye. But I am not attracted to women that way and my heart belongs to another."

"We did warn you about this," Emery said. "And for the record, the lust part applies to me too."

Lafiel sat down on a lounge chair beside them. "Oddly, I don't mind the attention when I am here. People openly admiring each other just seems to be part of the background. I see no harm."

"Would wearing that in public be illegal back home?" Shyori asked.

"No, but it would be frowned upon."

Jinto sat down. "Lafiel scandalized our crew just by stripping down to her military-issue swimsuit at a party," he informed them. He was in the process of relating that story when Mari walked out onto the deck. Uncharacteristically, she looked a little bit nonplussed. Everybody picked up on it. She wished them a good morning and Emery asked if something was wrong.

"A man from the delivery boat is at the door. There is a... _package_ which has arrived," she said. "It is addressed to us, but..." her gaze shifted to Lafiel. "They say an authenticated signature from Abriel Lafiel is required. Something about authorization to deliver restricted goods."

Lafiel smiled and stood up. "I know what it is. I'll come sign for it."

"Will you need any help with it?" Jinto asked.

"If you mean carrying it, no," Mari said.

"Something small?"

Her familiar ironic smile returned. "They said it _should_ be able to fit onto our walker."

A few minutes later everybody who had been on the pool deck was down on the beach, watching Lafiel and the boat crew use the boat's crane to load a shipping container onto the walker. The walker platform was wide enough but not long enough, so the front and rear railings had to be taken down to accommodate the long, narrow container. As it made its way slowly up the pier the walker did not seem to be straining as much as Jinto would have thought. Whatever was in there, it was light.

Thom showed up next to Jinto. He looked slightly worried. "Mom said something about a package. Is it from Lafiel?"

"I assume so. She's being very mysterious. That's a non-standard shipping container, it must be made specially for whatever is inside."

"I've seen those plenty," Thom said. "They're for transporting items that need to be deployed rapidly in the field."

Jinto frowned. "What sort of items?"

"Launchers, usually," Thom said, keeping his voice down.

They looked at each other for a couple of seconds. "Let's both go talk with Lafiel," Jinto said softly. Thom nodded. The two of them walked over to where Lafiel had brought the walker to a halt on the wide boardwalk that split the beach. She had just ordered the walker to go down on its folded legs, turning it into a stable platform. Now she was happily lowering the side railings. Clearly she was planning to open up the container right here. Unobtrusively, Jinto and Thom positioned themselves to either side of Lafiel. "You're really going to open this up right here?" Jinto asked casually.

"That's right," Lafiel said brightly. She worked her wristband, presumably sending the signal to unlock the container. A moment later there was a click. The top opened up, then the front, back and side container walls all came down together, flattening out and forming a wide platform.

Jinto just stared for a couple of seconds. "I'm... not sure what I'm looking at here." He turned to see Thom's reaction. He looked puzzled. Then some realization came and he laughed out loud. "Lafiel, did you actually buy this?"

"Yes. It's a gift for the family. I want you to have it."

"What is it?" Jinto asked.

"It's a surveillance drone," Thom said. "Or it was, until somebody went to work on it."

The way the parts had been folded up had thrown Jinto off, but he could see that it was a small aircraft. The others came to gather around, even Chisha holding Lee came to get a closer look. Lafiel hopped up beside the thing and pulled out a few large pins that had been holding parts in place. She worked her wristband again. Slowly, silently, the thing unfolded and the pieces locked into place. It had a very long, narrow fuselage. The section ahead of the wing was all glass, and Jinto could see inside there was room for two people to lie in tandem. The wings were incredibly long and mostly narrow. Only the wing roots supporting a pair of large ducted fans were wider and thicker. It was done up in two colors, black on top and light blue-gray on the bottom. It sat on top of two appendages that Jinto decided he would call landing claws.

"Lafiel, is this... legal?" Emery asked, looking as if she still did not believe what she was seeing.

"I've heard of these," Geith said, also sounding as if he could hardly believe it. "It's a Fremin Industries civilian mod for their military vehicles."

Lafiel beamed a smile. "That's right. All the military comm and surveillance gear has been removed to make room for the cockpit, but it still has commercial grade sensors and autopilot. It can be flown manually too, either by stick or by Froth and glove interface."

"It has a Froth interface?" Jinto asked.

Lafiel nodded. "Yes, that's what I had to sign for. Everything else is standard commercial gear. It's within the weight and power limits for use on the island and it's a stealth aircraft, so there's no problem with noise. Both Emery and Geith are certified for this class of aircraft."

"I've flown both gliders and ultralights," Emery confirmed. "You don't see either of them used much on the island because the air currents are tricky around the volcanic plugs."

"This has active control surfaces governed by software that can compensate for that. The drone was intended to be able to fly under the radar, or in much more hostile environments like planets that are still being terraformed. I'll show you." She grabbed Jinto's hand and smiled. "Let's take it up!"

"Um... sure."

"It's ready to fly?" Geith asked, sounding skeptical.

"I asked them to pack it for rapid deployment," Lafiel said. "Naturally I'll do a systems check first." She touched something on her wristband and the entire glass-enclosed front of the fuselage tilted up ninety degrees and opened out, exposing the harnesses within. It was possible to just step into it. Almost before he knew it Lafiel had coaxed Jinto into the upper harness and strapped him in. The Kamrau clan were regarding this just as dubiously as Jinto was regarding it from inside. Lafiel stepped in front of him and strapped herself in. She plugged her tiara into the Froth interface and slipped her left hand into the control glove. A moment later, the clamshell glass bottom enclosed them and tilted back down to its locked position. Lafiel put on a pair of visors and held out another set. "Put these on," she said. "There are no fixed instruments, everything works by HUD."

Struggling a bit with the confined space, Jinto slipped on the visors. There was a HUD display currently going through a systems check that looked very much like the one done by a Space Force shuttle. He could hear the soft hum and whine of machinery. Control surfaces were being taken through their paces and air was now being circulated around them. He could just barely hear the ducted fans behind them to either side being brought up to speed. "Can we really take off from here?" Jinto asked nervously. He noticed that everyone was stepping well back in anticipation of Lafiel doing just that.

"The landing claws have a high-speed muscle that acts as a launcher. The acceleration is short but very high. You should hold on to me, it will help stabilize us." Jinto did so, and a moment later the plane was thrown violently forward and out over the water.

Then all his anxiety melted away and it became magical.

They were flying in almost perfect silence over the water. It felt as if the aircraft was not even there, it was little more than a shadow chasing them in his peripheral vision. They just flew in a bubble of still air, slipping effortlessly across the sky. They continued to climb higher. The plane banked and turned to fly up the length of the bay. Jinto had seen a view like this before when they went tandem water-ski paragliding. But this was something different, both thrilling and peaceful.

He stroked her hair gently. "Lafiel, you knew it would be like this, didn't you?"

"I knew it would be wonderful," she said. He could not see her smile but from her voice it was as if he could. "Jinto, I want to take it into the clouds."

She wanted to take it through its paces. And now so did he. Jinto bent his head down. "Take us into the clouds, Lafiel," he said softly into her ear.

She reached out with her free hand to squeeze his. Without a word, she turned the plane around and headed back in towards the center of the island, still gaining altitude. The seemingly impenetrable ceiling of the cloud layer became more misty and intangible as they approached. But once they hit it, they were lost in impenetrable white. "How's the Froth sense?" Jinto was moved to ask.

"Better than I thought, even with the low-power radar. There's a visual if you want."

Jinto had heard of it but had never seen it. There was software that could render an approximate visual representation of what the Froth sensors were showing. Jinto directed his gaze at the visor menu and soon found it. He made the selection. His visors went opaque and projected a holographic image.

Jinto was stunned. _How is it that I never asked her to show me this before?_

The holo display leveraged his depth perception to give him a three dimensional map of the space around him. It was a highly distorted fish-eye view set up so that all the space around them could fit within his visual field. The level of detail was overwhelming. How could anybody make sense of this?

The answer came to him quickly. He had heard Lafiel describe this to him before. He was seeing this through his eyes, which could only really focus on one part at once. She was not seeing this, she was feeling it in a way he could not fathom. It was more like a tactile sense extended into the third dimension. She did not need need to shift her focus, there was nothing to focus. She felt it all at once.

"Can you see it?" Lafiel asked. She seemed to be wondering why he was not saying anything.

"Yes Lafiel, I see it. Even if it's just a pale image, I feel like I'm seeing it through you."

"I can see perfectly, Jinto. I will steer us true. Where do you want to go?"

"Can you land us on top of one of the volcanic plugs?"

Her voice held a smile. "I was hoping you would say that."

They continued to climb, spiraling between the pillars of rock. The ride was not quite as silky smooth as it had been out over the bay. The plane was working overtime to compensate for all the eddies and currents in the wind. In the projected image, there was some wispy color-coding in the air above and between the solid land. "Lafiel, is it showing you where there are updrafts?"

"It can't show me, but it is predicting. It is doing a good job, too. I am mostly flying as a glider with the fans in passive mode."

Jinto was getting more used to the distorted image. He could see that they were getting level with the top of the volcanic plugs. They approached the top of one. The wind was strong enough so that they could just hover right over it. Lafiel dropped them down and the landing claws got a hold of a small outcrop of rock. The nose dipped. "It looks like the claws got a good grip," Lafiel said. Jinto glanced at the icon that would turn off the holo. He was surrounded by white again. He could see the rough rock face for just a few feet all around them, with wispy clouds sweeping over it and obscuring anything more distant. There were just hints of blue sky above. The cockpit tilted upright and opened up. The wind blew damp, saturated air across them.

Lafiel released her harness and stepped out onto the rock. Jinto did likewise. He took her by the shoulders and kissed her. "Thank you for this, Lafiel. It is a wonderful gift, for me and for them."

She looked very contended. "I really wanted to leave something behind, a sign of my gratitude. If they start having more Abh guests, this will be a popular thing to do." Her smile grew wicked. "When you and Thom laid eyes on this, your relief was palpable. What exactly had you been expecting?"

"I don't know, maybe a missile battery for taking out the House on the Hill?" Jinto tried his best to make it sound like a joke.

Lafiel did not lose her wicked smile. "Don't be ridiculous, that would be unspeakably rude. I do have plans for this plane. It will be a gift for the Kamrau family. But before I hand it over formally, I am going to want to borrow it."

# # # #

Ranef Duben always took his afternoon tea at exactly the same time, in the lounge next to the picture window. He had never adopted the planetary time schedule, so today it coincided with early morning by local time. His daily schedule falling in and out of sync with the planetary rotation was a good way to mark the passage of time, and to keep the proper distance with his surroundings. In a way he preferred to be out here in local night. He would surround himself in a live image built by the light-enhanced cameras all around the outside of the house. The sensitive parabolic microphones would bring in the gentle sounds of the night. It would sometimes amuse him to observe neighbors who thought they had privacy.

Today was a cloudy, blustery day, with scattered rain. There was not much happening outside. This was the time of day when Ranef would focus on nothing in particular, letting the particulars of the day's work fade into the background. Most often it was just an opportunity to relax and regenerate. Sometimes, this fugue state would lead to surprising insights. More than one miscreant in the galaxy owed his incarceration to lines of inquiry that traced their origin to Ranef's afternoon tea.

Today, for the first time in a while, Ranef found his thoughts going out to the Princess Abriel Lafiel. The days of her furlough would be drawing to a close before long. She was still on the island, he knew that much. Her only movement had bee a couple of short stays in Oakuri. The Princess had promised to come see him before she left, and he was quite certain that she would keep her promise. That one was driven by duty above and beyond all else. It was clear from her service record, her correspondence and her associations. Meeting her had removed any doubt on that point. Her one real indiscretion had in fact been her way to resolve conflicting obligations. Less careful observers might accuse her of sentimentality, but Ranef knew better. She was Abriel through and through. Above all else the Abriel were dedicated to protecting those who served them. He was certain that she would do whatever she needed for those who looked to her for protection. Ranef admired her greatly. The Empire needed more people like her, people who were always asking themselves what is the right thing to do. It was rare to see such character in one so young. And such a beautiful girl, too. Really a lovely young lady.

Ranef really wanted nothing more than to lift the burden that she had taken upon herself.

The Empire's short-sighted reaction to the Mimic rebellion was very predictable. In one regard Ranef was in complete agreement. Letting these creatures run about in their robotic bodies was utter folly, anyone could see that. But when Ranef had read of the Collectives laboring in their virtual worlds while all the while being nothing but neural nets suspended in coolant... the possibilities were breathtaking. Not the gestalt minds of course, that was clearly no less dangerous than free-ranging Mimics. But kept in their virtual worlds, kept isolated, they could be easily contained. How much more easily yet when nobody else even knew they existed.

The Mimic that the Princess had taken custody of on Hania was such a fascinating case. The woman Miriam Hender had been an aged lander when her brain was scanned for download into a neural net. From all accounts the Mimic who took her name and her memories was no less intelligent and resourceful than the woman herself had been... in some ways perhaps even more so. She had learned Baronh on a highly accelerated schedule. Her earlier keepers had demonstrated she had the ability to acquire and retain technical skills. Just imagine what else she could learn!

The one thing that most people did not understand about intelligence work was just how labor-intensive it was. Everybody focused on the computers and the data, and the automation certainly was valuable. But just like an experiment required a scientist to interpret the result, the data required a trained analyst to get anything really useful out of it. Ranef had a very large data crystal full of encrypted data delivered here from Lakfakalle on every relay ship that made the regular run to the capital. Over the years he had got better at training the automation to look for what he wanted, and it had yielded great results. But that process was quickly reaching an asymptote, probably an impenetrable one.

What he really needed was thousands of skilled analysts. Or millions. Or billions. What he needed was to take Miriam Hender as his disciple, to teach her everything he knew, to train her to a state of perfection. Learn to exploit the unique properties of the Mimic neural net to let her focus on her work to the exclusion of all else. Then copy her into a vast array of neural nets and let her loose upon the data. Only then would the Empire be safe under an umbrella of total information awareness. By the time the Space Force won the war and the Empire encompassed all of humanity, he would have that umbrella ready for them to unfurl.

Ranef returned his thoughts to the more immediate. The fact that the Princess had delayed this long in returning here suggested she was unsure whether to trust him. If she came here and was not yet resolved, he would show her the quarters he had already set aside for receiving Miriam. His plan for the house had called for such guest quarters but they had never been used. Showing the Princess something concrete would set her mind at ease. And he had a further idea that might surprise her. If Miriam lacked companionship then why not use her backup to give her a twin sister? The transcript of her interview with Admiral Spoor clearly indicated she would be amenable to that idea, in fact she might very much appreciate it. And Ranef was not lying about letting Miriam and any sisters she wanted live here as they please. For his own purposes all he really cared about was getting a backup of her neural net. They need not ever know. And once everything had been arranged, covering his tracks would be a trivial exercise. It was what he did, after all.

Ranef saw his manservant enter the room and approach. He walked quickly and looked rather out of sorts. Ranef did not bother asking if something was wrong, he would find out soon enough.

"Excellency, her Highness Abriel Lafiel is here. She is asking to see you if it is quite convenient."

Ranef frowned. "Her Highness is here? I saw no boat approach."

"She has landed on the roof with a... small aircraft of sorts. She pounded... excuse me, she knocked on the terrace doorway to gain the attention of the staff."

Ranef stood up, really alarmed now. The roof terrace did include space for landing aircraft, but it was just for emergencies. This was a very bad day for the sort of civilian aircraft that were allowed for use on the island. "Did her aircraft crash? Is she injured?"

His servant hesitated for just a moment. "She landed... without incident. She is unhurt."

Ranef resisted the urge to call up live camera images of the roof to see for himself. Such an action would be disrespectful, and he needed more than anything else to place himself in a respectful frame of mind right now. He was not ready to properly receive a guest right now, he was just dressed casually in slacks and an open shirt. The question sounded absurd but he could not help but ask. "Is she dressed formally?"

"No, Excellency." Ranef got the impression he wanted to say more. But Ranef could not be seen to keep his guest waiting, there was no time to start interrogating the staff.

Ranef waved him away. "Show her in directly," he said curtly. "Have housekeeping bring tea service for two. Be quick about it." He usually was not so brusque with the staff, but he was not used to being taken by surprise like this. He really needed for this meeting to go the way he wanted it to.

In less than a minute a man from housekeeping brought in the tea service with commendable speed. Almost as soon as he left, somebody else entered the room. Ranef frowned. Had the Princess brought a local servant with her? Why had he not been informed, and why was she here alone?

It took a few seconds to realize that his guest had in fact arrived.

The Princess strode into the room as if she had been here a thousand times before and nobody belonged here more than she did. She was practically naked, dressed in shorts that had been rolled up to make them even shorter and a sleeveless shirt that had been tied up in front to leave her midriff exposed. Her skin had been scorched black. Her hair was gathered up into a high ponytail. As she approached, Ranef could not help but notice the tiara she wore. It had been embellished with the image of a silver sea-serpent that coiled all around and stared at him from over her forehead with tiny ruby eyes. But it was The Princess' own eyes that captivated him. They had none of the reserve and wariness she had shown upon her first visit. Her smile was warm, friendly and inviting.

Ranef found himself in a state of paralysis. Normally the guest must be allowed to speak first, but that was when the guest appeared at the door requesting entry. This was more of a chance encounter, so perhaps he could break protocol without giving offense. "Your Highness, what an unexpected pleasure."

"Your Excellency, thank you for inviting me in." She stopped rather too close to him. "I am sorry for dropping in like this." She bowed her head, closed her eyes and sighed heavily. "I told Jinto that was such a bad joke, but he made me promise." Her warm smile returned. "May I sit?"

"Of course!" Ranef said perhaps a little too forcefully. They both sat down on the armchairs that flanked the little serving table. "I feel compelled to ask, are you in good health, Highness?"

"Oh, this," the Princess said, running fingers across her face. "I got rather too much sun, but it is nothing serious."

Ranef speculated that she wore so little because her skin was still recovering and any more contact with clothing would be uncomfortable. "I have tea, is there anything else I can bring to make you more comfortable?"

"Tea will be fine."

He poured for both of them. After they had both taken a sip, Ranef asked the first question that courtesy required. "Have you been enjoying your stay on the island, Your Highness?"

The Princess spoke enthusiastically of the many things she had been doing since she arrived. She would often preface a new story with an inquiry of whether Ranef had ever been to the same place or done the same thing. After receiving several answers in the negative, she politely refrained from asking further. For his part Ranef had little interest in most of what she had been doing. For somebody of her potential to be spending so long in idle play seemed rather a waste. But she had clearly been keeping her eyes open. It appeared that she had now come around to his point of view regarding how fundamental the familial relations were among the landers. He had felt certain that given the opportunity to observe them in their natural habitat, she would come to understand this. Her experience with the hybrids was also intriguing. Teaching pride to such abominations was ultimately a futile gesture, but anyone this young could be forgiven for wanting to try.

"You seem to have a great desire to set things free," Ranef observed.

She looked at him thoughtfully. "The only other person ever to make that observation about me is somebody I trust completely. I have been giving a great deal of thought to the question of whether you are also somebody I can trust. I believe the answer is yes."

Ranef smiled. "I am gratified to hear that, Your Highness."

"I have thought much of why you are really here," the Princess said. "Or rather why your superiors wish for you to be here. I believe I understand now. Here you are beholden to nobody. You are allowed to do the one thing you have ever wanted to do, with complete impunity. Anybody wanting to even see you needs must go to great lengths." She smiled and her eyes went up as if hinting at the aircraft sitting on the roof. "Nobody can just casually come here to bribe you or threaten you or even make a friendly suggestion. You can be trusted because you are pure. If you have information that can destroy somebody or save somebody, it is all the same. You will make the information known, or you will make it disappear, whatever is required. You will always do what is right for the Empire."

Ranef was taken aback. _Just how much does she know?_ "I can tell you there is a great deal of truth in what you have said, Highness. The isolation frees me not only from distraction but from temptation, at least in the eyes of those I serve. Beyond that, there is little I can say."

"I quite understand," she said. "I have found out there is something I have to thank you for. The Kamrau family became part of Count Hyde's education on your recommendation. He benefited greatly from that. On his behalf, you have my gratitude."

Ranef smiled. "It was such an obvious fit. Two generations of the family produced such fine citizens, what better place for the young man? I felt certain they would be a good influence."

"A much better influence than his father."

Ranef felt he needed to tread carefully here. The way the Princess had taken Count Hyde under her wing, she clearly was very fond of him. If she thought he was lying about his involvement in the boy's development, then her trust would be lost. "It was important that he be seen to be making a clean break. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that he was under very close scrutiny by the government. With my proximity, I was the obvious choice to analyze the observations. His succession to the title was by no means a certain thing, not up until he proved himself loyal and trustworthy."

The Princess nodded. "There is one thing I am compelled to ask. Rock Lin died without a friend in the world. From our perspective what opinions he held are no longer of any concern. But he did have some influence on his son for a few years. Did he have pretensions of his son working for the independence of the planet Martine?"

Ranef understood why she had to ask. The Count no doubt knew about Miriam and had been part of the conspiracy to hide her. Lafiel was close to him, but she needed to know whether he had ever come under a bad influence, whether he could really be trusted. Ranef felt comfortable giving her the assurance she wanted. "No. The letters we intercepted all encouraged him to accept his destiny within the Empire. It was a shame I had to advise those letters be kept from the boy. But even the suggestion of any influence from his father could have undermined his position. Rock Lin was a hard man but not a duplicitous one. I understand he had only a small part in his son's upbringing, but there is no reason to think that he was a corrosive influence."

Her expression was difficult to read. It looked as if she had resolved herself to something. "You understand the importance of family to landers," she said softly. "You understand what it would mean to Jinto and his father to be fooled into thinking that they had abandoned each other. Yet that is what you recommended, and that is what was done. I am very sure of one thing now, Excellency. I can trust you to do what needs to be done. I can trust you with Miriam."

Ranef smiled, genuinely moved. "You honor me, Highness. If you will forgive me, the earlier we get things in motion the more likely it is we can arrange everything without any trouble arising. I will need to instruct you on how we will be arranging transport."

"There is no need, Excellency," she said calmly. "I have already taken care of everything."

Ranef frowned. He stopped himself before he could blurt out _What have you done?_ Surely she had not transported the Mimic here by regular channels? "Have you made some... preparations?"

"I believe you are taking delivery as we speak," she said in a voice utterly devoid of inflection.

A few minutes ago, by a casual glance out the window Ranef had taken note of the fact that the daily delivery boat was pulling in to dock at his pier. He was expecting a new data crystal, so that was entirely expected. What was not expected was the large package he saw being wheeled up the pier by his manservant. "Did you send something?" he asked, managing to keep the dread out of his voice.

"One maid-robot, one encrypted data crystal, and one neural net modified for fitting in the robot," the pitiless voice said.

Ranef's heart was racing. _She would actually dare to do this__? _His mind raced as he watched the cursed items being brought into his house. His manservant would have signed for them already. That fact would already have been sent all the way to the local government office to be backed up and stored. It would go out to Lakfakalle as part of the data feed on the next transport, to become part of the permanent record. That was the price he paid to the Service in exchange for his freedom and power: everything coming in and out of his house was recorded. He had ways around that, but the Princess would not know about those ways.

He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to see the Princess stepping right up to the front of his chair, her legs coming between his, effectively trapping him here. She glared down at him with a look of utter contempt.

Her voice was no longer expressionless. "The crystal contains nothing, just random data. Still, this will be investigated. It will be noted that I was on the island. It will also be noted that you delivered a very expensive gift to my host family, nothing less than a bottle of limited edition Lakfakalle brandy with its own unique number. The investigation will be extended to me. If they find out about Miriam, the connection will be obvious. I have made it my job to protect Miriam and her friends. I am now making it your job. You have your ways of making this go away, and now you have a good reason for doing so. Make it go away, and we can pass this off as a tasteless joke a young officer decided to play upon one of her elders in a rival service. I know you will do the right thing. And in case you think that I am playing your blackmail games, let me make my position very clear."

She leaned down, put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a Smile that froze his blood. "If I ever hear that Miriam or any of her friends have disappeared or have even received a visit from internal security, I _promise_ you I will come back here with my frigate and I will drop a kinetic round right on top of your house. I do not even care if anybody really believes it was a meteorite impact."

She stood up straight and stepped back. "You need not get up, I will see myself out."

Ranef sat in stunned silence for a while. He cried out when a monstrous bird with great claws swept down from his roof and out across the bay. The glider sheathed its claws and plowed into the gale-force winds without a care.

In the years to come, whenever Ranef saw that glider, he would remember.

# # # #

Most terraformed planets had some equivalent of the Incorporation Day, marking the day when the terraforming project was officially ended, the papers were signed and the planet was opened for colonization. In typical fashion, islanders ignored Delktou Incorporation Day altogether. Instead they celebrated Principality Day, the day when Moruweka Island was granted autonomy as a self-governed principality. Of course the biggest parties were in the Village, but each of the nine bays also had their own dos. The Geibera Bay civic center at the apex of the bay always hosted two parties, an afternoon beach barbecue followed by a traditional bottle party after sunset. When Jinto asked Lafiel which one she wanted to attend, naturally she had said both.

The barbecue was the one sort of island cooking that Lafiel had mixed feelings about. It seemed like a waste of good meat to plaster it with sweet sauces and then incinerate it to blackness. There was one kind of barbecue she found that she could more or less live with. Simply called a "stick", it had pieces of meat and vegetables skewered all along a very long, very thin ceramic stick with a handle and cooked over an open flame. It tended to be a little more subdued both in the sweetness of the coatings and in the amount of cooking. The method of eating from it without utensils was somewhat vulgar, but if everyone else was doing likewise then there could be little complaint. Lafiel also reasoned that if she did ever need to really beat off admirers with a stick this pointy one would do nicely.

Lafiel had lost track of Jinto in the crowd a while back when she had got caught up in a conversation with one of the neighbors, so when she retrieved her stick she went to find a place to sit down. She spotted Mari waving at her. She waved back and made her way over to where she was sitting on the low seat that the boardwalk formed where it met the top of the beach. There was a woman seated with her, somebody Lafiel had not met. She was unusual in a couple of respects. Most everybody else, including Lafiel and Mari, were in swimsuits and sandals. This woman was in a semi-formal calf-length long-sleeve light green dress with matching hat and closed beach-walkers.

It might not have been obvious to some people since the hat artfully hid both her hair and the froth organ on her forehead, but she was clearly Abh.

"Lafiel, I would like you to meet an old, dear friend of mine," Mari said.

"I am Tethanos Parej," the woman said politely. "Please call me Parej if you would."

"I am Abriel Lafiel," she said. In deference to her informality, Lafiel did not give her title. She was certain Mari must have told Parej who she was. "Please call me Lafiel if you would. May I sit with you?"

Parej smiled and gestured to the space beside her with her free hand. "Please do. I see you have gravitated to the same choice of barbecue that I did long ago." She and Mari each had a stick of their own. It should have looked awkward with Parej dressed as she was, but somehow she looked more comfortable than anyone here.

Lafiel sat. "Most barbecued fare seems to mirror the assault on the senses I was warned to expect were I to venture to the mainland."

Parej had a seemingly perpetual little smile that would just grow incrementally now and then. Her eyes were sharply focused, but still had a faraway look as if contemplating a great vista. It was a look Lafiel had seen before. It was the look of somebody who was reaching their twilight years and had much to look back upon. Parej was very old. "Mari has told me much about you during our regular talks, Lafiel. I must say, very few people have made such an impression on her since your young friend had been staying at their house."

Lafiel did not need to ask that she was referring to Jinto. "I have been here for several weeks, it is a wonder we never met before."

That smile grew just a little. "Mari and I converse by holo conference. I don't get out of my house much, I'm afraid. I am one of the mysterious recluses in the bay. But I always make a point of coming out for the Principality Day party." As she spoke she sent a fond glance over to her old friend. "It is a chance to meet with Mari, and sometimes with whatever interesting house guests she has brought with her."

"Had you met Jinto when he was here?" Lafiel asked without quite knowing why.

"Oh yes, it was my role as a woman to initiate him into the mysteries of love." Lafiel's eyes went wide. Her two companions laughed... in a remarkably subdued, gentle way. "Oh dear, if that one has a roving eye he is going to be in such trouble. You are already looking out for rivals."

Lafiel really wished that she could deny that. "I feel that you have me at a disadvantage, Parej."

Her smile became apologetic. "You are right to call me out, we are being very unfair. Let us eat, and I can tell you all my secrets."

Eating did not take long, but hearing of Parej's life took a bit longer. Lafiel had taken her for a first or second generation peer, but she was from an old family that Lafiel knew by name. She was an artist of some renown who had grown dissatisfied with the standards and prohibitions imposed upon her works by the Abh art schools and the associated critics. Lafiel could see where she and Mari would have much in common. Parej had come to Delktou to study under a man whose work she had come across and greatly admired. She had been describing some of her own works, but Lafiel was unclear on what media her new teacher worked in.

"It's not a media the Abh would really ever be involved with," Parej explained. "You see, he was an architect."

That took a bit of explaining. Lafiel understood there were aesthetic considerations to the design of space habitat interiors, but this was something a bit different. Not tied down by the requirements of the space environments, landers were much more free in the design of their living structures. The entire building could become a work of art whose only restriction was the function of the living spaces. Lafiel discovered that architecture could be a collaborative effort since it had some overlap with engineering. Parej and her teacher collaborated on many projects over a period of years. They became partners in the same practice.

"We always talked about designing our own dream house," Parej said. "We finally did design one on the mainland and moved in. It was a city house, and we liked it. But we had started designing a lot of country houses and decided we wanted one of our own. When properties on the island started coming up for sale we grabbed one and used most of our accumulated money to build the house. My teacher passed away many years ago, but I still live there. I have a particular fondness for the Kamrau house, it was one of the last projects that the two of us worked on together."

Lafiel was astonished. "You designed that house? It's so beautiful!"

"That beauty was the result of much very long argument and negotiation," Mari said.

"That is putting it mildly," Parej said. "Both Mari and Ernst had their own ideas about the house, and now you had two architects being brought into the mix. I think that house nearly broke up two marriages."

Lafiel frowned in puzzlement. "Two marriages?"

Parej looked a little surprised, as if Lafiel had questioned something obvious. Then some realization came. "Your pardon, I kept referring to him as my partner, out of habit. He was not just my business partner. We were married for sixty-eight years."

Lafiel felt like she had just been hit by another hurricane-driven wave.

Parej shared one thing in common with her friend Mari. If somebody needed time to think, she gave it to them. Lafiel's mind went in so many different directions at once, it was hard to put it all together. Behind it all, there was one unavoidable truth. _I am seeing my future._

Her mind reeling, there was one question Lafiel did have the presence of mind to ask. "I had been wondering about your change of family name."

"I followed the tradition of taking my husband's family name." Her smile became impish. "Or you could just say I adopted the name of his architectural practice."

Lafiel looked into the ancient woman's eyes. "Parej, if I may ask... were you both happy?"

The smile grew a little more than it had before. "What a question. Of course we were. I still am." She pointed. "When I fall asleep for the last time, it will be with this smile. The one he gave me."

Lafiel felt herself returning that smile. "Parej, Mari, would I be imposing if I asked for us to find some place more comfortable where we can talk?"

"Not at all," Parej said. "I was about to suggest the same thing."

Hours later, as the sun was setting and the bottle party was beginning, Mari and Parej excused themselves and caught a ride back home on a neighbor's boat. The character of the gathering was starting to change. The bottle party attracted a younger, noisier crowd. Lafiel went to retrieve her wineskin and shoulder strap from their locker in the civic center. In her wandering she ran into a couple of different people she had met before and got drawn into conversations where she was introduced to people she had not met. Eventually she spotted Jinto sitting at a campfire talking with Isu and a number of people, a couple of whom she recognized as being from the park service. She just stood and watched from a distance for a while.

_I have always known that one day Time and Fate will take you from me, Jinto. But now I realize just how little that matters. On the day that you close your eyes for the last time, I promise you will be surrounded by our grandchildren._

A while later when the two of them had a moment alone, Jinto looked curiously into her eyes. "Lafiel, what is it?"

She just smiled and shook her head. "Nothing important."

# # # #

It occurred to Jinto that this was the same thing they had done their first morning on the island. They were sailing out to do snorkeling in the reefs. But there were a few differences. It was just Lafiel and him this time. In place of the cruiser they had borrowed the family's small sailboat. And of course, since then there had been the seismic shift that changed everything.

Lafiel had been quiet today. She was gazing out across the ocean and into the clear blue sky. It was as if she wanted to open up and drink in every last drop of the place that they would be leaving soon. Jinto could understand how she felt.

The same mood overtook them after they brought down the sail and started diving. Rather than frenetically chasing after every pretty looking fish they saw, Lafiel just languidly swam beside him. She would always be the first to surface, correctly gauging Jinto's limit. The variety of life on the reef was vast beyond measure, and they still found things that they had not seen before. But for the most part this was now a familiar place to them.

After a good long while, they returned to the boat to eat and drink. That was a bit more challenging than Jinto had anticipated. When the little boat was dead in open water, it bobbed and swayed around quite a bit. As well as being much smaller it lacked the active control surfaces of the cruiser. "Maybe we should have gone out to one of the platforms," Jinto said. There were a number of anchored platforms scattered along the reef that were popular with divers.

"I like being at the mercy of the sea for a while," Lafiel said. Her eyes gave the real answer, she wanted them to be alone for today.

In response to gentle pressure from his hand, Lafiel lay down on the padded deck. He kissed her gently. He ran his hand along the strap of her swimsuit. "It occurs to me that since we're alone we don't really need these."

"Don't you like my new swimsuit?" Lafiel asked playfully.

"There's one thing I don't like quite so much about this one." He put his fingers over the tiny clasp at the front. "This kind takes two hands to undo."

She smiled. Her hand came obligingly next to his. Now that there were two hands, they made short work of the clasp. He moved the fabric aside and kissed her again, this time more deeply.

A rogue wave rocked the boat. They both had to brace themselves. Lafiel smiled up at him. "This is going to present a challenge."

"Do you think we're up to it?" Jinto grunted in surprise as she groped him.

"I can see that _you_ are up to it. Are you even going to be able to take that off now?"

"If you help me."

Lafiel slipped her hands under both sides of his swimming trunks. Her wristband chimed and she cursed. Jinto grinned. "Forgot to turn yours off?"

"I did not forget." Before she was even finished speaking Jinto's wristband also chimed. They looked at each other and shared the same thought. That could not be coincidence. And Jinto knew that he had set his to block all but emergency calls. They both sat up. Jinto saw that his was an emergency text message from the military network. It just had the code phrase _Barbarians at the Gates. _"Lafiel-"

"I know. Acknowledge the message." Jinto did so. His mind was racing. They were being recalled to duty five days early and that message meant the enemy had launched an offensive. Just how bad was it? Almost immediately his wristband chimed again. Jinto just stared in shock. "Lafiel, are you seeing this?"

"Yes." The message wanted them to confirm they were at the same location and could be picked up together. "I will respond for both of us." A moment later the flashing red on Jinto's display disappeared. Further communication would be through Lafiel. Her band chimed again. "That was from an inbound shuttle."

"Where is it landing?" Jinto started weighing options, trying to think what was the quickest way to get them to shore and onto a shuttle.

"They are landing _here_. Estimated splashdown five minutes."

"_What?_" Even if it had come straight from the Gate at speed the shuttle or its mother ship must have been in-system for several minutes at least. "Why are they only contacting us now, and still by text?"

"All comm is at the highest secrecy level, encrypted text only."

That made no sense. If the enemy had launched an offensive, the government could not possibly hide the fact. It would be obvious that all leave was being canceled, why would that need to be a secret? Something else occurred to Jinto. "Lafiel, if they will be splashing down nearby we need to get the boat away from the reef."

Lafiel nodded. Without a word, she helped him hoist the sail. The boat did have a small electrodynamic motor, which Jinto engaged, but it would be much faster used in conjunction with the sail. Without being asked, Lafiel took the tiller. That made sense, Jinto was more experienced with the sail and she had a better idea where they needed to go. "I see it," Lafiel said, pointing. Jinto could see it now too, just a black speck high in the sky. It quickly grew and resolved itself into the familiar shape of a Space Force shuttle. Jinto called up the GPS on his wristband. They were just coming off the reef, which was good. It gave the shuttle more leeway in where to land, and the splashdown wave was not going to break in the deeper water they were now sailing into.

The shuttle grew at alarming speed. The rumble of its jets was getting louder. The ship now seemed to be heading straight for the bridge of Jinto's nose. "Are they _kidding_?"

"They don't understand that we are in a small boat," Lafiel called out, her tone implying that was an oversight on her part. The pilot could probably see that now but it was far too late, they were irretrievably in final descent. The shuttle hit the water and disappeared behind a wall of spray. Jinto's heart sank as he saw the oncoming wave.

"Jinto?" She was asking what they should do.

"Steer straight into it." As the wave loomed over them Jinto threw himself forward and wrapped himself around the mast. The boat tilted up to near vertical. They were in virtual free-fall for a second. Miraculously, the nose dipped and they fell down the back of the wave. Water sloshed across the deck, but not enough to endanger them. Jinto glanced back and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Lafiel still safely at the tiller. The shuttle floated slowly out to meet them, carried by its momentum. Something else just occurred to Jinto. "If we are under a secrecy order then we can't even call back to say what's happened."

"Maybe we can," Lafiel said. "Thom is still officially part of the reserve. If he's wearing a wristband it should have military grade encryption. Technically that would be in the bounds of allowed emergency communication. Let me try."

Jinto slaved his wrisband to hers so that he would also receive any response. It came almost immediately. "Kamrau Thom," the familiar voice said crisply.

"This is Lafiel, I am calling from the boat," Lafiel said from behind Jinto.

"We saw a shuttle come down in your vicinity," Thom said. His voice was distorted slightly by the real-time encryption being done.

"We have gone through the wave, the boat is still afloat and undamaged."

"Hang the boat, are you and Jinto okay?"

"We are unhurt," Lafiel said. "The shuttle is here to pick us up. It is operating under secrecy, I am not even supposed to be telling you this much." Jinto found that somewhat ironic. Anyone on this side of the island would have seen the shuttle land.

"I understand," Thom said. "Nobody outside the household will know that you have left early. We will wait until your original departure date then ship your things by the regular channels."

Lafiel gave no immediate reply. Jinto turned from his place manning the sail and glanced at her. She seemed to be agonizing over what to say. "Thom, I am mortified beyond words that we have to leave you this way. You have all given us more than you will ever know."

"I understand. It has been our great pleasure, Lafiel. Keep Jinto safe and make sure you both come visit us again one day."

"We will, that is a promise. Thom, we will be coming alongside the shuttle shortly, I have to go now."

"That's fine. Don't worry about the boat, we'll come pick it up. Go make the galaxy safe for decent folks like you always do."

Lafiel looked full of regret over all the things she did not have time to say. "Acknowledged," she said in a thick voice. She broke the link. Her expression immediately hardened into the mission-centered resolve that Jinto knew so well. Only now did it sink in that they were really leaving. He looked forward again to see that a hatch was opening in the side of the shuttle. A crewman emerged and rolled down a ladder. "We'll have to swim," Lafiel said.

"Right." As they came alongside they both dove over the side into the water. In less than a minute Lafiel was scrambling up the ladder and Jinto was right behind her. The crewman handed them both up. Both their wristbands and the ship intercom gave the audio signal for authentication of authorized personnel. Jinto found it odd the crewman had not asked for verbal confirmation of their identities. Lafiel went straight for the cockpit. She leaned in. "Make your takeoff east by northeast, that will put both your path and the backwash clear of the reef and the boat."

Jinto could glimpse the pilot's confused face as he looked in through the hatchway. "East by...?"

"Sixty-seven degrees off planetary north!" Lafiel barked, translating the archaic directions she had picked up while she was here.

"That is not the optimal-"

"Just _do_ it, pilot! If you need to make up lost time, go straight into a vertical climb. You know how to do that don't you?"

"Yes... ma'am." He said. It occurred to Jinto the poor man might not even be aware of who he was supposed to be picking up and who it was giving him orders. He did not appear inclined to inquire.

Jinto followed Lafiel back to the cabin to get strapped in, allowing the copilot to resume his own seat in the cockpit. Jinto sighed. _Might as well get this over with. _"Lafiel?" he said softly.

"Yes?"

"You should do up the top of your swimsuit."

Lafiel looked down. To Jinto's great relief, she just muttered a curse under her breath and moved to do up the front of her swimsuit top. Uncharacteristically she was being rather clumsy about it.

"Would you like me to help?" Jinto asked softly.

"I would like that very much," Lafiel said, finally driving the clasp home. "But we are pressed for time at the moment."

As if to punctuate that statement, the jets lit up and they were pressed back into their seats. The pilot quickly demonstrated that he did in fact know how to go straight into a vertical climb. They were buffeted violently by the rough ascent through the ever-shifting layers of atmosphere. Gradually the ride became smoother and the view out the view-ports became darker. Artificial gravity was engaged, and the green light came on. Immediately Lafiel unstrapped herself and walked forward. Jinto followed quickly behind. "Do you know where we are being taken?" Lafiel asked the pilot.

"Ma'am, I don't know the name of the ship we're taking you to. I don't even know who _you_ are. We were just given authentication tags and told to transport two people matching those tags. We'll be docking in eight minutes."

"Very good, carry on." Lafiel marched them to the back of the cabin. "I guess we'll have to be satisfied with emergency pressure suits for now." She threw open the locker and stared in horror. Her expression immediately became one of rage and she practically bowled Jinto over running back to the cockpit. "Pilot, the emergency locker is _empty_! Do you have any idea how many safety regs you are violating?"

"This shuttle hasn't been released for active duty yet, ma'am," he said. "It's only been released for delivery to deployment site."

"You did splashdown and extraction in a shuttle that hasn't even been released for use yet?" Lafiel asked, sounding utterly scandalized.

"That's not the half of it, ma'am. Every ship in the sector is operating at the highest secrecy level. I don't even know the name of our mother-ship or its commander. You won't find any equipment back there at all, the ship has been stripped down for quick transport."

By that he meant quick transport across long distance through Plane Space. Traveling speed through that two-dimensional space was governed by a brutally simple formula, speed was inversely proportional to mass. To get maximum speed, you stripped a ship down to minimum mass. If the ship they were headed to was in the same state, somebody wanted them to get somewhere far and somewhere fast.

"I suppose we are under radio silence?" Lafiel asked as if she already knew the answer.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry but-"

"You need to seal the cockpit when docking under secret orders, I know." Lafiel turned back into the cabin and walked over to the view-ports on the port side, where the docking would be done. It appeared she wanted to get a look at the ship they were docking with. It came into view shortly. "That a Devastator-class frigate," Lafiel said.

As they approached, another thing became obvious. "There's no paint," Jinto observed.

"I noticed. This ship just came off the assembly line."

"How much would you care to bet this is your new ship?"

"It makes no sense," Lafiel said. "Why send it out here? If we are going to the front, it would make more sense to send us by relay ship and meet up with our own ship there."

Jinto had already come to that conclusion. Wherever they were headed so quickly, it was not the borders with the Triple Alliance. He spotted something else. _Oh, she is not going to like this. _"Cruiser." He pointed. It was far enough away that it was difficult to even make out the exact class of ship. Only two things were obvious. It was a heavy cruiser of some sort. And more to the point, it was painted red.

The dread and anxiety in Lafiel's face vanished to be replaced by something less ominous but more immediate. Lafiel looked profoundly irritated. "Jinto, I have a very bad feeling about this." She was no longer angry, but she sounded very annoyed.

Jinto could only agree. "I feel like we are about to replay a scene from our past."

Lafiel sighed. She gazed back into the cabin. "You don't suppose we could rip off the seat covers and fashion some clothing out of them, do you?"

"We have nothing to cut it with."

"I wasn't being serious, Jinto. I just felt the urge to express my profound bitterness."

"Go ahead, let it out."

"Whoever is ultimately responsible for having us fished out of the ocean and brought here is going to die soon, die slowly and die screaming."

"That's the spirit."

They waited in silence as they came alongside the bare ceramic curved hull of the frigate. As the shuttle approached the umbilical, Jinto put a hand on Lafiel's shoulder. "Lafiel?"

She looked at him. "Yes?"

"Own the room."

She appeared confused for a moment. Then she smiled. "Who do you think you are talking to, Jinto?"

"The one in charge."

The green light came on over the hatch, and it slid open. They floated through the umbilical and into the airlock of the frigate. The umbilical was fully pressurized, but they had the airlock inner door closed for safety. As soon as the outer door was sealed, the artificial gravity was slowly engaged and the inner door opened. They both stepped out into the open space formed in front of it by the intersecting corridors.

The two people Jinto had expected to see were waiting for them. Lafiel saluted. "Hecto-commander Abriel Lafiel, accompanied by Vanguard Flyer Lin Jinto, both here in response to summons. Admiral Spoor, Chief-of-staff Cufadis, we are at your disposal." She immediately went into parade rest.

Jinto saluted and smiled. The two people facing him were exactly as he remembered, save for the stunned expression on their faces. Spoor was a strikingly beautiful woman with red eyes and long dark blue hair in a thick braid draped over her admiral's cape and across her shoulder. Her chief of staff was an ever worried looking man with short wavy blue hair. "Admiral, Chief-of-staff, it's good to see you again. It's been a while." He also went into parade rest, ready to receive their orders.

Spoor brought a hand to her face, still appearing to be in utter shock. "Your Highness... are you quite well?" she asked with genuine concern in her voice.

"We are both in perfect health and uninjured, Admiral," Lafiel answered.

"I am at a loss for words," Admiral Spoor said, which could be counted as something of a first. A moment later she found her voice again. "Have you both been floating at sea under a baking sun the entire time you were here?"

"No Admiral, we happened to be on a boat excursion when the summons came," Lafiel said, just a hint of annoyance starting to enter her voice. "Your pilots have gone to great lengths to bring us here quickly, I assume there must be a reason."

"Yes, indeed," Spoor said, looking very disappointed that they had to get down to business. "I will keep this as brief as I can. The Triple Alliance has launched a major offensive centering on a thrust towards Lakfakalle."

Jinto had been expecting to hear this, but his heart raced all the same. It was what they had all been dreading, the appearance of the force they were certain the enemy had been holding in reserve.

"If this is my new ship, may I ask what it is doing here so far from the front?" Lafiel asked.

"A valid question. At the moment we are adopting a posture of defense in depth against the enemy's offensive."

To Jinto's ears, defense in depth was a euphemism for retreat. He thought bitterly of all the hard-fought ground they had won being lost all over again.

"So we are not headed for the front?" Lafiel asked.

The Admiral smiled. "Not to that front, no. Our counteroffensive is going to be mounted through the Hania Federation. It has not been announced yet but they have agreed to become a protectorate of the Empire pending full integration. We have been forward-positioning supplies in that area for months now. I will be commanding one of the fleets assembling there and your squadron has been assigned to us."

"I understand," Lafiel said crisply. "I look forward to serving under you." Jinto felt dizzy. It was as if the whole galaxy had been turned upside-down while he and Lafiel were on the island.

Spoor nodded. "To confirm, this is your new ship. You currently have a skeleton crew. They have been informed of the assembly area you are to make for, there you will regroup with your squadron and the remainder of your crew. We would like you to make best speed."

"I understand," Lafiel said. "We will depart immediately."

"There is one more matter left to us then," Spoor said. "It regards Kilo-commander Atosoryua. Her father's health has taken a turn for the worse, so with regret she has resigned her commission and returned home to care for her father and manage their estate."

"I am very sorry to hear that," Lafiel said gravely. "She will be greatly missed. Has a new commander been assigned for the squadron?"

Spoor smiled brightly. "Indeed. My last order of business today is to inform you that you have been promoted to kilo-commander and given command of the First Devastator Squadron. Congratulations."

Lafiel came to attention. "Thank you, Admiral," she said. She held on to her poker face perfectly. Jinto was proud of her.

"With regret, we must keep the ceremony to a minimum," the Admiral said. "Cheif-of-staff, if you would please do the honors?"

"Yes, Admiral." Cufadis picked up a metal case that Jinto had absently noticed resting next to the wall behind him. He lowered a tray from the wall, set the case upon it and opened it up. From a small envelope in the lid, he pulled out the crest of a kilo-commander. He cleared his throat. "Ah, normally this would be pinned on the tunic-"

"Oh Chief-of-staff, do learn to improvise," Spoor said testily. "We don't have all day."

"You need not concern yourself, Chief-of-staff," Lafiel said with just a hint of gentleness and sympathy in her voice.

Cufadis hesitated for just a moment. "Very well." He stepped up. "Abriel Lafiel, we bestow upon you the rank of kilo-commander." He fastened the crest to the front of Lafiel's bikini. He used a degree of care that one would usually expect to see reserved for defusing warheads. When he was done he stepped back and saluted. "Congratulations."

Lafiel returned the salute. "Thank you." The poker face was still there. Jinto was so proud he really wanted to kiss her.

Cufadis returned to the case and retrieved two other items, a dark blue cape and a command baton. He walked over to Lafiel, smiled and held them out. "You can just accept these for now, kilo-commander."

Lafiel took the cape, unfolded it, threw it over her shoulders with a flourish and fastened the decorative clasp around her neck. She pulled out the cord that had been tying up her ponytail and flared her damp hair out with her hands. Lafiel took the command baton, which in fact looked more like a short-sword. She tucked it into the side of her bikini bottom. It looked rather precarious there, but it stayed in place. Lafiel directed her gaze back at the Admiral. "If there is nothing else, I would like to get my ship underway."

"Very good, your bridge crew might even recognize you now," Admiral Spoor said. The look on her face suggested that after witnessing this sight she could now die happy. "I will release the ship to your care, then." She and Lafiel worked their wristbands. Authentication was confirmed, and access to the ship systems granted. Cufadis did the same for Jinto. "Nobody can regret more than I that we lack the time to savor this delicious reunion," Spoor said with what sounded like real disappointment. "When in transit I suggest you read up on the specs for the new pocket battleships, you will be working very closely with them. They gave me a new toy too, the latest battle-cruiser class for my flagship and four new squadrons of them for our reinforced fleet. Read up on those as well. And finally you will need to choose a chief-of-staff."

Lafiel glanced at Jinto and smiled. "Chosen."

Spoor gave Jinto an appraising look. He wondered if she were questioning Lafiel's decision, but that was not the impression he was getting. "We have at least given your new commander her cape, it pains me to have to send you to duty looking like that. I know we have stripped these ships to the bone for transport but I wonder if we have anything you could wear."

Jinto was ahead of her. He smiled regretfully. "I have already accessed the ship inventory. We do not have anything much bigger than a dishtowel."

"I see. Well, perhaps I can help." Spoor unfastened her cape, removed the decorative clasp, and folded it back so that only the black lining was showing. "I don't think anyone can accuse you of impersonating a flag officer this way." She smiled and stepped forward. "Allow me-"

Lafiel interposed herself between them, extending her hands. "Allow me, Admiral. I have gained some experience with this."

Whatever the Admiral saw in Lafiel's face clearly brooked no argument. She handed over the folded cape without complaint. When Lafiel turned around to drape it over Jinto's shoulder, Spoor smiled playfully and gave him a wink. Jinto tried very hard not to react in any way.

Lafiel stepped back to inspect the result. "Will that do?"

Jinto smiled. Some time ago Thom had told him that Roman senators used to dress something like this, he was glad there had been somebody in history who did not think this looked ridiculous. "It's fine. Thanks. And to you, Admiral."

"Not at all, I have spares. Well then, I will dismiss you both and return to my flagship," Spoor said. She paused just long enough to bask in the sight of them one last time. "Congratulations again, kilo-commander. I am expecting great things from you."

Lafiel saluted. "We shall teach you to expect the impossible from us, Admiral." She turned on her heel and marched down the corridor to the bow of the ship. When they were out of earshot she sniffed. "Time and Fate," she muttered. "We are gone for a few weeks and the whole galaxy goes to pot. Jinto, would you do me the honors?"

"Of course." He preceded her onto the bridge. In his best commanding voice he called "Commander on the bridge!"

The bridge officers did what they were trained to do when they were on standby and heard that. They all came to their feet and faced the back of the bridge. Ekuryua stood up from the command chair and stepped back. Lafiel strode out in front of the command chair. "At ease, everyone. You knew me as commander of your ship but as of today I have the honor of being the new commander of the First Devastator Squadron. This is now my command ship and you are my staff. It is good to see you again. Regretfully, I lack the time to greet you properly since our first order of business is to regroup with our squadron as quickly as possible. To that end, we need to get this ship through the Gate right now."

While she spoke, the look on the faces of everyone on the bridge changed from confusion to realization. It really had taken them this long to convince themselves that they were being addressed by her Highness the Viscountess of Paryun Abriel Lafiel. Ekuryua had caught on just a little earlier, giving her a chance to fix Jinto with a withering stare. The message could not have been clearer were it written across her forehead. _What have you been doing to our commander?_

"Adrian, I see you have your pilot's rating now, congratulations," Lafiel observed. Jinto had also noticed his presence at the helm. Had Ekuryua really been spending these past weeks on Lakfakalle giving him pilot training? At any rate, he looked fully healed.

"Thank you, kilo-Commander," Adrian said. "With your return, I would like to yield that position to the XO and take up the weapons console."

"Permission granted. Ekuryua, can we do maximum acceleration from here and hit the Gate at speed?"

"There is a great deal of military and civilian traffic in the intervening space," Ekuryua pointed out.

"Will that be a problem?"

Ekuryua's eyes appeared to shine all the brighter. "No Commander, that will not be a problem at all."

"Then let's get this ship ready to depart."

Jinto took his place at the systems console. He noted that as Ekuryua and Adrian passed each other to take their new positions, they exchanged a fond look and a quick clasp of hands. Jinto's first order of business was always to contact the engine room. He put on the headset and made the call. "Gurinshia here," the chief engineer's familiar voice came over the earphone.

"Lin Jinto here, checking in," he said quietly into his microphone.

"Welcome back, sir," she said brightly.

"Thanks. Did they have to drag you off the beach?"

"Kicking and screaming," she said. "And you?"

"You don't want to know where they dragged me from. How do things look down there?"

"The cupboard is bare but the essentials are humming."

"Good to hear. Fair warning, you might want to take your meds."

"Ekuryua getting wet?"

"And how. Lafiel just gave her the helm."

"Thanks for the heads up. It's good to have both of you back, sir."

"It's good to be back," Jinto said, surprising himself by how much he really meant that. He signed off. A moment later, he got a signal at his station. "Commander, the shuttle has detached and the umbilical is secure."

"Thanks, Jinto," Lafiel said. She sat with hands resting on the armrests and her legs crossed. The bare, sun-browned foot that dangled in the air was bobbing like the head of a thoroughbred racer waiting for the starting gun. She spoke in a clear voice. "My fellow pilots, these Triple Alliance fools have interrupted our furlough. Let us go make our displeasure known to them. Ekuryua?"

The pilot looked eagerly back at Lafiel. "Yes commander?"

Lafiel wolf-grinned to her XO. "Permission to take us through the Gate, best possible speed."

Ekuryua licked her lips. "Thank you, commander."

Jinto settled into his chair and braced himself to feel the new Frikov's deflowering.

The End

Author's Postscript

For the music soundtrack as end credits roll, think Sarah Brightman "Once in a Lifetime" followed by AC/DC "Back in Black".

The island of Moruweka is not something from the BotS canon. It emerged from my own speculation about some of the things Jinto might have been up to during his seven years of schooling on the planet Delktou. It seemed reasonable that the school would have some kind of seasonal break. Since Jinto was learning a new language, a language immersion program was a plausible option for his summer holiday. That got me to thinking of why there might be an enclave of Baronh speakers on the planet. The rest followed from that.

The Abh genetic modifications removing receptors for certain neurotransmitters is also something not from the BotS canon. Since the Abh have no concept of marriage, I speculated there must be something beyond their culture to explain this anomaly. We know that the Abriel in particular put great importance in maintaining an appearance of impartiality, and in showing no favoritism towards family or lovers. It did not seem much of a stretch to think they would have genetic modifications to encourage this behavior. Even more than their extended lifespan, this is something that would put a strain on a romantic relationship an Abh might have with somebody lacking the same genetic modifications.

Okay, so let's talk about the elephant in the room. As the Abh would put it, Jinto asked for Lafiel's genes and she said yes. BotS has a familiar setup with two main characters, a man and woman who share a close friendship and also a close professional relationship. This situation inevitably gets fans speculating about will they or won't they. Fans of my generation sometimes refer to this as the X-Files syndrome, where we spent years wondering whether the unresolved sexual tension between the two leads will ever be resolved. BotS fans have spent much time asking the same question about Lafiel and Jinto. Well, now you know where I stand on the question. Revealed, my opinion is.

My thanks to Mark Engels, who spent a lot of time beta-reading every chapter of this story, pointing out many errors and suggesting many improvements which became part of the final version. His observations and insights have made this a better story.

Thank you for reading this far, I hope you have enjoyed the story.

Ken Wolfe


End file.
